The Battles of the Magellenic Cloud
by Freddo
Summary: In this, Part Eight of the AU "New Comet" saga, in July of 2207, Princess Invidia, who has turned back to evil, attempts to conquer Gamilon and Iscandar with the help of the Black Nebulans. Rating increased to M for violence. STORY NOW COMPLETED!
1. Chapter 1

The Battles of the Magellenic and The Milky Way-Act One

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY**

**Being the eighth part of **_**THE NEW COMET**_**-- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of **Derek A.C. Wakefield** (as usual)

**ACT ONE: FIRST BLOOD IN THE SANZAR SYSTEM**

**I. ENTER ADMIRAL JENA…**

**The Edge of the Sanzar System**

**Wednesday, July 1, 2207: 2141 Hours Earth Space-Time **

After the news of June 21, 2207, the Alliance forces jumped into training manuevers almost at once to ready for the great attack of Invidia's that they knew was coming; but when it was coming, they did not know.

The waiting ended one tense night on July 1, 2207, around 2141 Hours. Then, first contact was made between the attacking forces and the defenders when a Gamilon mobile fleet of carriers and space battleships commanded by General Fraken engaged a Cometine missile ship and carrier fleet that was simply _huge_.

The enemy force was commanded by the new Admiral Jena, Invidia's great new lover, from the decks of the _Tyranjea_, a new twin-deck command carrier that Invidia had given him.

"Remember!" barked Invidia over the main screen, all business now as she commanded the battle from the rear in the _Eritz Gatlantis_. "Preserve your forces for the battle near Gamilon in case we have to destroy it; but only as a last resort!"

"Of course," replied Jena with a smile.

A moment later, one of his officers came up and said, "Combined Gamilon and Earth fleet spotted! Range, two hundred _gerad_ distance!"

"Launch planes!" snapped Jena.

"Launching planes!" repeated the combat air group officer.

A moment later, the _Tyranjea_ began launching Scorpion attack boats and other fighter escorts as the fleet sped towards the combined Gamilon and Earth force.

It was not long until the fighting began.

On his flagship, a Disk Command Cruiser known as the _Alvagard_, General Fraken of the Gamilon-Garuman forces quickly took stock of the situation as he snapped, "All Gamilon carriers, launch fighter and attack planes! Order the EDF carrier _Shiryu_ to launch the second wave of torpedo and attack planes to back us up!"

"Preparing attack mode!" snapped the helmsman on the _Alvagard_.

"_Yes_, General!" snapped Fraken's executive officer, a Gamilon known as Captain Jakal. "Gamilon carriers one through five; launch at once! Cruisers and destroyers, screen the carriers! Order the _Shiryu_ to launch sixty seconds after our launch!"

"Understood!" said the Captain of the first massive Gamilon-Garuman twin tri-deck carrier _Sahardta_. "Enemy forces attacking at high speed! Prepare to meet and oppose enemy boats and planes!"

"Launching planes!" snapped back the first Gamilon squadron leader as he prepared to take off. "First squadron _away_!"

"First squadron away! Second squadron, backing us up!"

"Prepare for SMITE!" snapped Fraken as they gathered before his flagship while he stood with his hand on the controls.

"Roger, Preparing for SMITE!" barked Leftenant Von Schiver, the leader of the first torpedo squadron.

"ACTIVATE!" barked Fraken, who laughed evilly as the Gamilon and Garuman planes faded away in white and pink flashes of light.

Soon, the Gamilon planes were launched, and they were launched towards the Cometine fleet with their new and improved SMITE technology.

Before Captain Dershal, Jena's underling in charge of the missile ship fleet, knew it, the Gamilons had the jump on him.

A moment later, the Gamilon planes were appearing around his fleet in bright, terrible flashes of pink light.

In a few moments, Gamilon planes were blasting torpedo after torpedo into the Cometine missile ships.

Dershal was not a happy man, to say the least.

"Damn them!" he screamed as he tried to evade the enemy planes. "Where are they pulling those planes from?"

"The Gamilons, it appears, have the intiative," said an underling of Dershal's with a sick grin.

"_Curse_ you!" he screamed as he pulled out his weapon and shot the man. "Replace that Leftenant! FIRE MISSILES!"

A moment later, his ship was firing every missile that he could into the enemy planes' midst. Many of them missed, but many of them found their targets as Gamilon planes blew apart.

A few brave Gamilons kept their wits about them, evaded the missiles, and made suicidal torpedo runs against the enemy ships, coming close enough to launch their heavy torpdeoes, even as they came within range of the enemy ships' lasers.

"This is Leftenant Gorling!" snapped a Garuman commander over the circuit. "I have just successfully launched against the enemy squadron flagship! Major damage reported! I…"

Then, Gorling screamed as enemy laser fire blasted into his cockpit and right into his helmet, killing him even as he launched his plane into a death-dive into Dershal's bridge with a final desperate scream.

In a moment, his plane spiralled as a final deadly missile into Dershal's bridge, blowing him and his ship to bits in one massive explosion.

Other Cometine ships of the first missile ship squadron followed them into death.

They were helped into oblivion by EDF planes from the _Shiryu_, which caught up with them just a moment later.

"All right!" yelled Lieutenant Blankovitz, the commander from the first attack plane from the Green Hornets, working off the _Shiryu_. "We've got those guys right where we want them! Now, let's attack!"

Thus, twenty minutes into the battle, the Green Hornets went into history as the first EDF planes to engage the enemy at Sanzar.

They streaked in, smiling as they blasted apart Cometine ship after Cometine ship like clay target pigeons.

"Not bad!" yelled Blankovitz as he laughed.

"Good going, Dennis!" laughed another pilot as he smiled while blowing apart a Cometine vessel.

"This is not good!" said another pilot.

"What is it?" said Blankovitz.

"The _Shiryu's_ under attack herself! Scorpions have just SMITE'd in all around her!"

"Crap!" yelled Blankovitz. "Holland, Nishiyama, Pollard, break off attack! Defend the flagship!"

"Roger that!" they snapped.

They broke off their attack in just enough time to defend their beleaugered ship.

In the meantime, Scorpions were braving the pulse laser flak from the _Shiryu_ like suicidal madmen and madwomen to heavily damage the Earth spacecraft carrier and her escorts.

The _Shiryu_ was surrounded, and her men and women were even firing the carrier's main guns at the Scorpion boats to try and repel them.

The tactic was working; somewhat.

The EDF carrier was quite badly damaged in spite of the spirited battle her men and women were fighting,.

"What's our situation?" demanded the _Shiryu's_ skipper from his bridge.

"Commodore Raful, we're taking major damage!" snapped Commander Shimaseki, his XO.

"Keep us in this battle as long as we can!" he demanded. "We still need to recover our planes!"

"I don't know how long that will be possible, sir! If they hit the engine room with those heavy missiles, sir, we're done for!"

"We're not gonna pull out yet!" snapped Raful as an explosion went off outside on his ship's foredeck, even as the Combat officer yelled, "Number Two turret out of action! Many casualties inside the turret!"

"Keep us fighting, Kamlin!" yelled Raful.

"Yessir," said the Combat Officer. "Trying to!"

"Maybe we should call for help, sir!" suggested Shimaseki. "We've just lost another one of the cruisers!"

"Miss Turrell!" snapped Raful at his comm officer. "Call the _Argo_! We need some backup!"

"Yessir!" she said as she made sure her headset was on snugly. "Calling Iscandar now, coded frequency!"

In the meantime, on the _Argo's_ bridge, near Iscandar, the New Comet itself had been spotted on Gamilon's long-range defense network, and a signal had just been sent from Gamilon to the rest of the fleet, which was in orbit around Iscandar and Gamilon.

"Confirmed!" said Nova from Analysis. "New Comet advancing; distance, one-half a lightyear away from the edge of the Sanzar System. However, analysis indicates that it seems to be slowing down."

"My guess is that they're here to watch the show," said Sandor.

"Have Fraken and Raful engaged anyone yet?" demanded Commodore Wildstar from his post.

"Word from Desslok's flagship," said Homer. "He reports that Fraken and our task force are in battle now."

"So, it's started," said Derek as he bowed his head. "Homer, what's the situation?"

"Commodore Raful has just sent a call for help, and…"

The radar began bleeping a moment later. "Enemy fleet spotted!" cried Sasha from the main radar. "Range, fifteen megameters, speed, twenty space knots and slowing," she snapped.

"Analysis!" said Nova. "Attack squadron of Black Nebulan forces! Ten space battleships, two carriers, and many escorts! It looks like they're heading towards Iscandar!"

"Damn," snapped Wildstar. "Ready main guns! Order Hardy, Hartcliffe, Wakefield and Marrable to launch at once!"

"Roger," replied Domon. "Readying main guns! Black Tigers and Trojans, stand ready to launch!"

A moment later, the Black Tigers began to roar out of the lower hatchway of the _Argo_ while the Trojans followed them out of the upper port and starboard launch bays. The _Argo_ was soon surrounded by forty-eight planes that blasted rapidly into combat.

"Good launch, people!" snapped Hardy over his mike. "Let's see if we can take out those carriers!"

Hartcliffe, Wakefield, and Marrable repsonded with "Rogers" as they blasted towards the enemy ships.

"Five megameters to enemy fleet!" came Homer's voice over their speakers. "Sasha says they're closing fast!"

"You know the drill, people," said Wakefield. "We've been practicing enough the last ten days! Now let's _get_ them!"

A moment later, they closed with the enemy carriers and engaged. A few enemy planes were in the midst of launching, but it looked as if the planes from the _Argo_ had the initative since very few enemy ships had launched.

Hardy led the attack, with his flight being the first ones over the flight deck of the enemy carrier. Missiles blasted into the enemy ship like rain; and the enemy warship was soon smoking in several places.

Not far away, Deke and Brew were administering the same treatment to the second carrier. Bangs Capistrano gave Brew a big smile as she planted two missiles right into the enemy carrier's island structure, demolishing its bridge.

"Yeah, baby!" yelled Brew with a big smile. "Sticks, let's pump a few more missiles into that Black Nebbie thing's flight deck!"

"Roger that," said Deke. "Good thing we got that information from that Radnar guy about these ships in that transmission on the 26th. I wonder where he is?"

"Maybe he's messing up Invidia?" laughed Brew.

"Maybe," said Deke. He wished Sasha was in combat with him, but he couldn't argue with the argument that right now, she was needed on the _Argo_ more than anywhere else.

Soon, their carrier went up, followed by the carrier that Hardy and Hartcliffe had been after. "Scratch two enemy carriers!" laughed Bangs over the circuit.

"Crap, we have to go after those battleships!" snapped Deke. "They're firing at the _Argo_!"

A moment later, Hardy gave them the order to attack. They began to fly towards the battleships while the _Argo_ began taking damage from their heavy guns…

A second barrage of Black Nebulan fire roared towards the _Argo_ as the space battleship withstood the minor damage.

"Main guns locked on and ready!" snapped Domon. "Wave motion cartridges ready!"

"Fire at will!" responded Wildstar from the Captain's chair.

A moment later, the _Argo's_ forward main turrets went off, followed by her aft main turret.

The missiles slammed into one of the Black Nebulan space battleships, which blew apart with a satisfying explosion.

"Turret aberration, plus two degrees," said Domon as he made a minor adjustment. "Second target being acquired, locked!"

"FIRE!" barked Wildstar.

The _Argo_ fired again after her gun crews pumped in nine more wave motion cartridges.

The cartridges roared towards the enemy fleet on streams of fire.

Most of them blasted right into the second heavy space battleship, making toast out of its dense armor as the ship was blown to bits.

Wildstar smiled as it was blown apart.

"Enemy escort fleet retreating!" snapped Sasha from her post.

"Looks to me like they're getting ready to warp, Derek!" added Nova from Analysis.

"Your guess?" asked Commodore Wildstar.

"Yessir, based on the energy signatures I'm picking up," Nova replied.

"Not if we can help it!" said Derek with an evil grin. "Kitano, pursue them! Domon, have the Tigers and Trojans pick off as many as they can before they return to base! Then, after they come back in, ready main guns, regular fire!"

"Got it!" said Domon.

"Up to flanking speed," said Kitano from his post.

"Increasing power to wave engine," said Yamazaki from his post.

At that, the _Argo_ surged forward, in hot pursuit of the small Black Nebulan fleet.

The Tigers and Trojans were recalled a moment later. After the planes came back in, their ready rooms were full of pilots applauding, clapping, and cheering at the kill rate while their planes were hastily serviced and refuelled.

The _Argo_ was pounding at the Black Nebulan fleet with her main guns when Sasha gasped. "Captain! They're warping!"

"Crap!" Derek snapped as he banged his Captain's desk.

"Estimated warp-out point," said Nova from her post. "Somwhere beyond the edge of the system…they're running somewhere, Derek, but _where_? What's out there?"

"Feed the coordinates to Kitano," snapped Derek. "Then, to the _Arizona_. Kitano, prepare for warp to those coordinates. Homer, signal Venture to do the same on the _Arizona_!"

"Yessir," said Homer. "Hunch, sir?"

Derek nodded.

A moment later, after signalling Iscandar (and assuring that the _Princess Astra_ and her escorts would be on station), the _Argo_ prepared for a rapid space warp,

She and the _Arizona_ warped out in pursuit of the Black Nebulans a moment later…

What they saw when they got there was…

….a big surprise.

"Look at that," said Sasha as she changed the video panel. "Some kind of floating fortress!"

"That's their base," said Domon.

"Nova, scan that thing from all angles," snapped Derek. "Sasha, track its course and speed. Domon…signal all planes to be ready for takeoff…"

"Yessir," said Domon.

"What are you thinking?" said Sandor.

"I'm gonna take them out before they get a chance to launch any more ships," said Derek as he stood up and shrugged off his peacoat. Eager stood with him as they stood around Wildstar.

Derek nodded to Sandor and said, "Sandor, you're in command while I'm gone…Homer; tell Venture he has operational command over the rest of this task group from the _Arizona_!"

"Derek?" cried Nova as she ran up. "I don't want you leading them, if it can be avoided!"

"It's my job," said Derek.

"Are you sure it's the right thing to do?" she insisted. "You could get hurt out there in your fighter!"

"Nova, I'll be fine, I'll be in my Super Star…she's the fastest of our planes, and the most manueverable." he said as he held her hands and gave her a quick kiss. "Take the radar after you finish scanning that fortress! I want Sasha in the plane with Wakefield. Sasha, head off to the upper bay with me and get into Deke's plane."

"Yessir," she replied with a nod, trying to hide her tears as she did so.

Derek nodded at the group and ran out with Sasha.

"He'd better not leave me a widow; not _now_," said Nova.

"I'm sure he'll be just fine, Nova," said Eager.

"He knows what he's doing; he'll be safe," added Sandor.

"He'd better be," said Nova as she wiped her eyes. "I don't want our children growing up _without a father_!"

"I can't disagree with you, Nova," said Homer.

Nova angrily wiped her eyes again and ran back to her post, losing herself in her work so she wouldn't have to worry.

Regardless, worry she did.

Even though part of her wanted to _kill_ her husband about now…

A short time later, Wildstar's Super Star blasted off into combat from the aft port catapult of the _Argo_, followed by Hardy's squadron, Hartcliffe's squadron (which Wildstar took command of) and Wakefield and Marrable's squadrons.

"Range to the enemy fortress, two hundred megameters," said Nova over their headsets from the ship. "Speed, eight space knots and slowing. They're up to _something_."

"Whatever it is, we'd better take them out fast," said Derek. "I'm in overall command! The _Arizona's_ Sun Tigers are launching right behind us! We're to hit that fortress before they can launch anything! Understood?"

"Yessir," said the other pilots over Derek's headset.

"When we get in range, we're attacking, and we're attacking fast!" snapped Derek as the Sun Tigers began to launch from the _Arizona_ as backup as Wildstar had requested of Venture. Two squadrons of the Sun Tigers, under the command of Cory Conroy and a youngish pilot known as Lt. Flash Contrail, flew with the squadrons from the _Argo_, while two other squadrons of the Sun Tigers remained near the _Argo_, _Arizona_, and the eight new EDF _Fuyuzuki_-class heavy destroyers that escorted them to serve as fighter cover.

A moment later, seventy-three planes roared off together as one to attack the Floating Fortress.

They were expecting a battle; and a battle they would get…

**II. THE BATTLE OF THE FORTRESS**

**The Edge of the Sanzar System**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 0032 Hours Earth Space-Time **

Twenty minutes later, Wildstar's planes had the Floating Fortress in sight.

"Damn, look at the _size_ of that thing!" blurted out Contrail from his plane.

"Cut the chatter, second squadron leader!" snapped Cory Conroy in his heavy accent. "Wildstar says the circuit's gotta stay _clear_!"

"_All planes_!" snapped Wildstar from his cockpit. "We are 0.82 megameters away from the enemy fortress! I'm picking up launches from that thing! Expect resistance!"

"What sorta launches?" barked Hardy from his plane.

"Fighters," snapped back Wildstar. "Watch your entire area, people! First wave launched!"

"Making contact to starboard!" yelled Deke from his plane. "Sasha, Holland!" he barked to his crew. "Hold fast, this one's gonna be _rough_!"

Deke took a hard dive while Sasha's stomach came up. Two Black Nebulan fighters had spotted Wakefield's squadron, and they were roaring in on the defensive as Deke and his wingmen roared in to meet them.

Wakefield locked on target and began pumping plasma and laser energy hard into the enemy boats. One exploded, while another one broke away and headed off towards the vanguard of the squadron.

"_Uncle_!" cried Sasha from her post. "They're after his plane!"

"Wildstar!" snapped Wakefield. "Watch your six, sir!"

"Coming about!" yelled Wildstar as he did a hard flip.

Then, Derek snapped, "Hardy, we got a hairball here."

"Ain't a hairball, it's a Goddamn pit bull fight!" whooped Hardy as he fired some missiles at a Nebulan fighter of his own that he had to contend with.

In the meantime, in the the Black Nebulan ship, the alien pilot grinned evilly as he got Wildstar in his sights.

"This will earn me eternal honor, getting the commander of the Star Force! Damn that human!" he said.

The pilot laughed as he locked on and prepared to shoot red energy into Wildstar's belly.

Derek, as sly as a fox, let the pilot think he had him before he flipped on his turboburners and abruptly put his Super Star up on its tail.

"What?" hissed the Black Nebulan pilot. "Damn that inferior organic; he is _good_!"

Wildstar and the Black Nebulan jockeyed for position again. Both men were good pilots, but the Black Nebulan, who was named Lieutenant Khimann, was beginning to admit that his Terran adversary was just as good as he was.

Maybe better.

"You're hard to pin down," he hissed. "Got lock on you again…how long do I hold it?"

_Keep on following me, buddy_, thought Derek as he watched the pilot. _Good. I'm making you think I'm getting tired of this. Like hell I am! I have a wife and kids to get home to. I don't know what you have to come home to…an oil can? They once autopsied you guys and found you were machines like the Technomugar. What is it like, being a machine? Hope I never find out…_

Derek whipped about and grinned as he got a lock on Khimann while red energy bolts from another plane whipped all about him. "Now, goodbye," said Derek as he fired.

His nose guns went off, and he smiled as bursts of blue energy whipped into the Black Nebulan's cockpit.

There was a bright rose of flame, and Khimann screamed as the fire burst into his armor and burned his natural head to bits as his blue-grey skin shrivelled and crisped.

In a mere moment, he was dead and forgotten as Wildstar flew his plane right through the ball of expanding gas that had been his plane and went on to fight the next Black Nebulan commander.

And, they were now closer to the Fortress; only half a megameter away from it now.

Soon, they would be ready to attack it.

Wildstar just hoped they got there before they launched a major sortie. Even then, he saw a small squadron of ships blasting up out of the Fortress' dome.

He called the _Argo_ and said, "Sandor, they're launching some kind of half-assed sortie; maybe ten ships. They just warped! Tell Mark to expect company!"

"Acknowledged!" said Sandor over his headset.

From her plane, Sasha saw a precognitive image of the huge dome closing and she cried, "Captain! We're running out of time!"

"We're almost done here!" said Wildstar. "We should be pulling out and hitting that thing in maybe 120 seconds!"

A moment later, the enemy ships warped in near the Earth task group. They were two space battleships along with eight escorts.

The _Argo_ soon had her guns turned on the enemy fleet while, escorted by the new destroyers _Hanley_ and _Malenfant_, she opened fire on the enemy near a smallish moon of the Sanzar System's outermost planet.

A vicious gun battle soon ensured as the _Arizona_ and three more destroyers showed up to help out.

On the _Argo's_ bridge, the lights dimmed as the space battleship took her first actual damage of the battle as a rocket anchor was blown off and a few circuits overloaded.

From his post, Sandor snapped, "Damage control units to the bow area! Keep the fire from getting to the wave motion gun room!"

Men and women ran to their posts while Nova said, "Enemy fleet all around us! Distance, two megameters! Oh, _no!_ One of them is about to ram the _Hamakaze_!"

One of the EDF destroyers fired like mad as the wounded Black Nebulan escort ship blasted in to ram, not caring about the consequences as it smashed into the red and white space destroyer's starboard side and ninety men and women died in a ball of flame with the soulless mechanoid men who were loyal to Skaldart and Invidia.

Nova gasped and shook tears out of her eyes as the Hamakaze's end flashed across the Argo's main screen. She thought, _Please God, don't let us end up like that! And please watch over Derek! I hope he's gotten them into that Fortress by now…_

The Floating Fortress loomed before the sixty-nine pilots that had made it this far through the first enemy wave of resistance.

It was a huge white and crystal construction with a huge dome that was stuffed with carriers, battleships, escorts; the entire fleet under Admiral Derdan's command, ready to pounce on Iscandar and her few bases in a landing operation that Invidia expected would be quick and vicious.

Skaldart, even now, was speaking with Derdan as he stood on the bridge of his flagship, the _Periandes_, ready to lead the sortie to Iscandar.

"How goes the operation?" demanded Skaldart on Derdan's pinkish, distorted screen.

"Ready to launch our great sortie and warp to Iscandar," said Derdan. "I have a small unit dealing with the _Argo_ and the _Arizona_ nearby now. They are pinned down there and cannot attack us."

"I heard from Ekogaru you have some resistance," purred Skaldart.

"Insignificant, my Lord," laughed Derdan. "The Star Force launched some fighter craft against us. They'll soon be stopped when we close the main dome, which I see we are doing now!"

"What about the sortie tunnel?" said Skaldart.

"We'll have ships coming out of there like rain in about a minute!" laughed Derdan again. "Sir, they'll never get to us!"

"I am pleased. Remember. Capture Queen Starsha _alive_, if at all possible. If captured, she is to be stripped at once and readied for the Sphere of Joy in the torture chambers in the _Eritz Gatlantis_. A bounty to the man who brings her back here to my base ship in chains."

"I hope I am the one," laughed Derdan.

He cut off as a trooper reported. "Sir! Enemy planes detected!"

"Where are they? Probably trying to get into the dome?"

"No! The sortie tunnel, sir! We're just ready to launch the second wave, and they are getting in!"

"A minor concern," said Derdan.

Wildstar had tried at the dome, but he had been frustrated as the huge dome began to close.

Then, he and Sasha had spotted the tunnel.

"Follow me!" he snapped as he spotted the tunnel.

"Acknowledged!" said Hardy. "Tigers, let's pounce on that thing!"

"Yeah, man, I always wanted to 'ave sex with a machine dock!" sneered Hartcliffe.

"All planes, in through the tunnel, full speed!" snapped Derek.

The Tigers followed Wildstar's plane into the tunnel as Derek's heart sped up.

Several Tigers roared along the outer carapace of the Floating Fortress as gun fire raked at them, energy gun fire that came to naught as they neutralized the gun posts.

Derek blasted through the tunnel, breathing hard as lights whizzed past him in the dark.

A moment later, he was the first plane to emerge into…

…a floating dockyard that made the inside of the first Comet Empire city seem small by comparison.

Ships of all sorts were inside the huge construction…

Spacecraft carriers…

Space Battleships…

Space Destroyers….

Space Cruisers…

Smaller Black Nebulan escorts of all kinds….

All of them caught with their pants down as they prepared to launch and warp away!

All of them as easy as pie to begin shooting at as Tiger after Tiger roared into the sortie tunnel to attack.

And, attack they did.

Wakefield grinned as he and Brew met up in combat while Sasha smiled as they roared right towards a shelf filled with Black Nebulan spacecraft carriers. There were, maybe, ten of them.

Deke and Brew fired eight missiles. Soon, with almost no missiles left, they whooped as they saw carrier after carrier just blowing apart.

"How many of them did we get?" whooped Deke.

"Don't know, cuz, but this is almost better than screwin' around with my lady!" laughed Brew.

"Did we really get them?" asked Sasha in shock.

"Damn straight we did," said Deke.

"YEAH!" yelled Hardy as he met up with his ex-student Flash Contrail as they blasted apart a large part of the Fortress together. "Damn, this is _better than practice_!" laughed Hardy.

"You're telling _me_, sir!" laughed Flash as he roared up beside Hardy and gave him a thumbs-up as Jeff attacked two docked Black Nebulan space battleships.

"How many did we get?" yelled Conroy over the circuit.

"I just gang-banged five destroyers," said Hartcliffe. "Wham, bam, thank you, _MA'AM!_"

"I did you better!" mocked Bangs on another circuit as she laughed. "Three battlewagons, shot to hell in a minute!" she laughed.

Bangs winced as one of her squadron mates went up in a ball of flame. "Damn, poor Weyland!" she yelled.

"Use up your missiles, and get some more!" said Hardy. "Wildstar wants to pull out in a minute!"

"Already?" laughed Hartcliffe. "Just when it was getting _good_!"

"We're starting a firestorm!" yelled Wildstar on the circuit. "Now, for phase _two!_ All planes, follow my lead and out the way we came! They can't sortie now! Back to our ships!"

"What's phase two?" said Sasha from her post as the Tigers began to pull up.

"I guess you weren't at that briefing," laughed Deke. "Phase two is where the fun _really_ begins!"

"Can't wait to see what it is," said Sasha…

**TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER…**

**0118 Hours….**

"You made it!" cried Nova as she hugged Derek on the _Argo's_ bridge.

"We sure did," he said.

"Boy, is that thing burning," said Kitano as he looked on. The task force was only three megameters away from the burning Floating Fortress now.

"Now, phase two," said Wildstar. "Prepare for a short space warp! Get us to within a megameter of that thing before it can move…"

"Calculating course," said Nova from her post.

"Prepare to warp, _all hands_!" said Derek over his microphone. "Then, we take final action…"

"Which is?" said Domon.

"Guess," said Derek.

"I think I like this," he replied….

A moment later, the _Argo_ warped yet again, followed by the _Arizona_.

Destination, near the Floating Fortress.

Destination, the place where they would take action at last…

"_What happened to you_?" demanded an enraged Skaldart over the circuit to Derdan.

"Sir, they jumped us," said Derdan. "I didn't know that their fighters were that potent! We have taken major damage!"

"How bad?" hissed Skaldart.

"Two-thirds of our ships, destroyed. One third, badly damaged. My own ship has…"

"Launch your sortie."

"Sir?" said Derdan.

"Launch, and finish off Iscandar! You still have enough there to hit a few bases! Get out of that base ship now!"

"We're damaged! We…"

On the _Argo_, the main guns moved up majestically as they trained, followed by the guns of the _Arizona_.

"One megameter away from the Floating Fortress!" said Nova from her post.

"Wave cartridges ready," said Nishina from his post.

"Ready to fire at will," said Domon. "Rosstowski is also ready on his ship!"

"FIRE ALL GUNS!" snapped Wildstar. "Target, Floating Fortress!"

The _Argo_ and the _Arizona_ both fired their guns.

A barrage approximating 21 of the energy of the _Argo's_ wave gun roared out of both space battleships.

The shells plunged into Derdan's Fortress and blew him apart in mid-conversation with Skaldart.

Finally, at 0130 Hours, the first phase of the battle was over.

Almost four hundred enemy ships and a huge base were destroyed by the Earth forces.

Iscandar was thus saved from an invasion that had been readied.

There was still more fighting to come, but Phase One of the Battle of the Sanzar System was over.

And the Alliance had won.

At least…they had won the first round…

**TO BE CONTINUED…. **


	2. Chapter 2

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY**

**Being the eighth part of _THE NEW COMET_-- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of **Derek A.C. Wakefield** (as usual)

**ACT TWO: ENTER THE BLACK ORCHESTRA**

**I. AN ARGUMENT TO BE RESOLVED…**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**The Edge of the Sanzar System**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 0518 Hours Earth Space-Time **

While Commodore Derek Wildstar and his wife Nova had hugged with relief that he was alive after he had returned from his attack on the Black Nebulan Floating Fortress, a few words exchanged between them after that made it clear that his pregnant wife was still _very_ upset at him for going out and leading the Tigers.

Nova had been summoned to Sickbay after that to help treat patients, so Derek didn't really have a chance to talk with her.

The _Argo_ had made another warp to assist the damaged EDF spacecraft carrier _Shiryu_ and begin repairing her own damage. All was quiet, so Derek finally left the bridge in search of Nova.

He found her, down by her locker near Sickbay, crying her eyes out in nothing but her slip and sandals with her clothes thrown in an untidy pile on the deck.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he came up to her.

"This war's _wrong_!" she snapped. Nova turned to face him. "Oh, my head knows you have to show your _leadership_ by going out in that damned Super Star to fly with your pilots and lead them into battle. That's my head! My heart is the part that's broken now…why did you have to leave me and the babies in serious jeapordy of my having to have them alone and be a single parent? I'm very upset at you right now because you had to play fighter captain today and leave me there chewing my nails! I want to kill you for that arrogance, Derek! You made me so mad!"

"Nova, I made it through that battle just fine, I…"

She looked at him, wanting to slap him for a moment. "I'm glad you made it home to me, but _upset_ you had to risk your life like that! Don't you damn well _get_ it yet?""

"Nova, I…"

"You're a flag officer now, Derek! Your place was on the bridge! You're nearly thirty, like me! You're getting too old for this! Hardy could have been your commanding officer out there, and you damn well know it! _Don't_ you?"

"Nova, I put myself in danger; so do you, every time you board that Medical shuttle, and every time you board the Cosmo Hound on those missions. You have kept your flight certification up for those two ships. Or should I tell you, 'nurse, heal thyself?'"

"I…," said Nova.

"If you're gonna tell _me _to stop flying…"

"Derek, you know I…"

"Then _you_ stop flying too," he said as he held her hands. "Or have you forgotten our children are in here?" he said as he caressed her stomach.

"I can't stop flying, I guess," sighed Nova. "I don't know if I can ask you to stop, either. Or could you be a little more _careful_?"

"I'll try to stop flying so much in combat, if _you_ will," he said with a weak smile. "Do we have a deal?"

Nova nodded sadly. "What I want is for this war to be over and to _be_ home! But that's not gonna happen until we defeat them, is it?"

Derek shook his head. "No…"

Then, Nova hugged him. "Then how about you stop complaining when I try to look out for you?" she said as tears ran down her cheeks. "And let's try to lead more careful lives…and be there for each other? I love you, _damnit_! I love you so much I could just kill you!"

Derek held Nova. "I know that, and do you believe me when I say I love you?"

Nova nodded. "Yes. But try not to go into harm's way quite so much? _Try_?"

"I'll…try," sighed Derek. "But I don't know how long I can keep that promise in this stupid war. You know that…I know that…"

"Good," said Nova as she snuggled up to him while she cried. She saw he was crying too. "I guess that's the best either of us can do, for now, isn't it?"

"Nova, when this war is over, I'll never let anything disturb us like that again. We're a family. Remember?"

Nova smiled at him through her tears and kissed him. "Thank you, Derek. Thanks…for trying…"

"Nova…" he said softly as they embraced and snuggled.

They stood there together like that for a very long time, lost in each other and their thoughts, hopes, and fears…

**II. BREW AND HIS LADY…**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**The Edge of the Sanzar System**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 0530 Hours Earth Space-Time **

Derek and Nova had resolved their argument peacefully and romantically.

In the meantime, Deke Wakefield and Ivan stood in shock, watching as Jere "Brew" Marrable had what was clearly a romantic argument with Gabrielle "Bangs" Capistrano-right on the flight deck in the upper starboard bay.

Bangs yelled at Brew, "So, you let the damn cat out of the bag…mentioning sex with "your lady" right in an open communication!"

"I didn't say who "my lady" was!" snapped Brew.

"Bullshit! They all know by now!" snapped Bangs. "Or they should!"

"What's going on here?" asked Deke.

"Sticks, this ain't yo' concern!" yelled Brew. "Do I get in the way when you and her go at it?" he said, pointing to Sasha.

"You're in love?" said Sasha.

"Yeah, if I don't kill him first!" snapped Bangs.

"That's _adorable_!" laughed Sasha.

"He's not so damn adorable now!" snapped Bangs. "He looks more like a jackass!"

"Hee-haw," said Brew as he waggled his face at her. "And when was the last time yo' went Spindletop on me?"

"What?" snapped Bangs as she slapped Brew. "That'll teach you to make that stuff public!"

"You mean…?" said Sasha.

"Yes, we've been doing the deed!" snapped Bangs. "Not on the ship, though…"

"You sly dog," said Deke as he laughed at Brew. "Keeping this quiet, huh?"

"Yeah, but the whole ship knows now!" said Brew.

"They wouldn't have if you wouldn't have _blabbed_!" yelled Bangs. "Excuse me while I go get some air," she said with a huff as she walked away.

A while later, Bangs ended up on the aft observation deck, tapping her boot against the deck as she furiously smoked a cigarette. She didn't care if the smoking lamp was on or not, she just wanted to be alone.

"Brew, I love you, but I want to _kill_ you sometimes," she snapped at no one in particular.

"What I want," she said out loud as tears ran down her cheeks, "Is for you to be sweet to me, Brew! Show me that I am more to you than this week's pilot fighter-jock conquest! Show me that I _matter,_ damn you!"

Then, Bangs turned her head and quickly put out her cigarette in the communal ashtray when she heard soft guitar music. She blushed when she looked over and saw a figure in yellow and black sitting in the other chair with her Gibson, playing along as she sang, "_You Don't Have to Say You Love Me…_", an old standard by Dusty Springfield. Bangs heard the figure, who was Nova, playing and singing:

_You don't have to say you love me…Just be close at hand…You don't have to stay forever…I will understand…Believe me, believe me…._

Nova noticed her audience and stopped. "I'm sorry, Gabrielle," Nova said quietly. Nova was one of the few on the ship who usually called Bangs by her Christian name. "Just thinking out loud…"

"I think you heard me, too. Darn that Brew!"

"What happened?" Nova asked. "Or would you rather not talk about it?"

"You heard most of my rant," said Bangs as she shut her eyes and tears ran down her cheeks. "Is Derek in the doghouse?"

"No. Maybe I am because I tried to nudge him to hang up that fighter helmet. He's going to be twenty-nine soon. I know from his latest flight physical he is just starting to slow down. Just a little. Not much, but…he is getting a little less sharp. I worry about him so! Don't broadcast this, but our Commodore isn't a twenty-two year old fighter jock anymore. He's the youngest flag officer in the Fleet. I want him to live to be the oldest."

"A sensible notion," said Bangs. "Especially…"

"Yes, with a family almost here," said Nova as she looked down at her inescapable tummy. "These two want out bad. They must have kicked everything but my spleen in the past week."

"Amazing how you keep on going like that," said Bangs.

Nova nodded. "Just wait until you and Brew…"

"If we get that far," said Bangs.

"It'll work out, I'm sure!" said Nova. "I've known Brew since we were kids. He really is decent. He just acts…jerky at times."

"Tell me about it," huffed Bangs.

"He's not the only one, I can be a jerk sometimes myself, and I confess to the sin and do Twelve Hail Marys as penance," said Nova as she rested a grey-booted foot on the deck; she had just been out on a short search-and rescue run a few minutes beforehand with Dawn in Boat #21107. They had successfully retrieved an injured and drifting Green Hornet pilot and had brought him back home after Nova and IQ-9 had pulled him out of what remained of his Cosmo Tiger. "Like to come up to my cabin for a bit? I'll make some tea."

Bangs nodded and followed Nova out of there.

Ten minutes later, Bangs sat at the small table in the Captain's quarters while a now-barefoot Nova served her some tea. "Big cabin you two have," she said.

"It gets cramped in a hurry, believe it or not," said Nova as she rummaged through a drawer near her locker. "Ah! Found it!"

"Found what?"

"A data capsule of music Derek and I keep around," Nova said. "Now, to be honest, I have no idea when we are going into battle next, so I try to let my anxious, overwrought mind take a smoke break every now and then. Even though I _do not_ smoke."

"That sounds almost missionary in its fervor, ma'am," said Bangs.

"Operate on a lung cancer patient and it'll put you off the stuff for _life_!" Nova huffed. "Derek, you and Captain Avatar's pipe," said Nova as she took out a pipe and shook her head. "Recently used, too," she said as she ran ash out on her finger.

"You sound annoyed."

Nova huffed. "He's like a kid! He sneaks this thing when I'm not around. Well, I'll just hide it again," she said. Nova opened another drawer and threw a bra over it. "Let's see you find it _this_ time, Commodore smarty-pants!" she said with a wicked grin.

"That's a little mean," said Bangs.

"Well, I'm trying to keep Derek _alive_," said Nova. "Sometimes, to keep Derek alive, I must use extreme measures," said Nova as she turned on the data capsule of music. It sounded like a nice instrumental mellow blues, with lots of electric piano in it. "Want more tea?"

"Okay," said Bangs. "But I have to be going soon…"

"Well," said Nova. "We get rest…when we can," she said as Derek came in. She got up, hugged him, and said, "Derek, want tea?"

"Okay," he said. "Of course, I don't know how much time we'll have…"

"Who does?" said Nova as she kissed Derek and poured him some tea. "Now, this is what I want to talk about…"

**III. PLOTTING A NEW WICKEDNESS**

**The _Eritz Gatlantis_**

**The Edge of the Sanzar System**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 0910 Hours Earth Space-Time **

Many, many Black Nebulan and Cometine ships gathered at the New Comet a few hours after the loss of Derdan's Floating Fortress to plot Phase Two of their attack upon the Sanzar System.

The Comet Field was up, and the Comet City, surrounded by its roiling gases, positively reeked with evil as Admiral Jena, forgiven by Invidia for his early loss to the Gamilons, stood on the bridge of his carrier flagship as it manuevered through the central vortex and arrived safely in the Comet City a few minutes later.

In the docking area, he noticed many Black Nebulan ships as he was escorted up to Invidia's palace by some guards.

In the palace, in a huge meeting hall, Jena came in to find many other Cometine generals, Invidia, and Ekogaru, along with Skaldart, Sarda, and Admiral Meldazz of the Black Nebulan Forces.

Invidia stood, tapping her white-booted foot against the deck screen as she snapped, "We have suffered a major reverse a few hours into our attack with the treacherous sneak attack upon Admiral Derdan by the Star Force. In that attack, we lost three hundred and sixty vessels and a Floating Fortress. However, contrary to rumor, we are not terminating our attack upon Iscandar and Gamilon. We are _intensifying_ it."

Jena nodded and Ekogaru smiled as Baron Meldazz, Admiral of the Black Nebulan Fleet, came forward.

"I have the second thrust ready," he said. "I shall strike Iscandar directly, without further ado, with our Attack Fleet Number Two. It is intact and battle-ready. It consists of ten first-class space battleships, thirty destroyers, five more carriers, and an invasion fleet of a hundred landing ships and troops. I will commence a landing on Iscandar post-haste! To hold off the enemy, there are two Gorba Floating Fortresses. One will be commanded by Admiral Dega, my dear friend, and I shall command the other one. I intend to draw the _Argo_ herself into a trap. Then, Sarda and Skaldart will deal with her, and then, they will deal with the Gamilons. Fifteen ships of Jena's fleet survived; he shall pin down the _Argo_ first so she cannot aid Iscandar; until the Third Attack Fleet and Skaldart's own task force engage the _Argo_. We have a total of two hundred and seventy-eight ships remaining to attack this system with. I am confident, Princess, that we shall _win_."

Invidia smiled and nodded. "Jena, begin it now. Meldazz is next. We know what we are doing. And we shall prevail."

Skaldart smiled and bowed towards Invidia. "As you command, my Princess…"

Jena soon took off, with his forces roaring out of the Comet City to begin Phase Two of the terrible attack.

He had to win.

Or die in the attempt…

Jena's fleet blasted out of the Comet a few minutes later, heading off to a short warp to attack the _Argo_ and her escorts.

He expected to find them soon as he roared away and executed his warp.

It didn't take long until he found them…

…not at all…

Only twenty minutes later, at 0935 Hours Earthtime, his ships were all in position and ready to go.

The attack began soon afterwards, and it was particularly vicious and dastardly when it began…

The _Argo_ was heading back towards Iscandar, and she was now near the tenth planet of the Sanzar System. The tenth planet was known as Dalsanti, and it was a smallish, rocky planet. Fraken's fleet had retired there for repairs and for resupply, and the _Argo, Arizona, _and their task group made a brief stop near that planet for parts and repair crews brought in by the Gamilons.

The _Shiryu_ had made it safely back to Iscandar, where she was in orbit of the planet and was being protected by the Iscandarian spacecraft carrier _Princess Astra_ and some other EDF space battleships while she sat under repair in orbit of Iscandar.

At Dalsanti, however, the attack began when Jena and his carriers, space battleships, and destroyers spotted the _Argo_, _Arizona_, and their escorts near the planet.

"Situation report?" said Jena on his bridge.

"Recon planes indicate the _Argo_ is under repair. Minimal fighter cover. Recon ships left before they were detected," said an officer as he came forth and saluted.

"I shall report to Invidia."

Invidia was drinking some wine when Jena came up on her screen.

"Greetings, my love," she said with a smile.

"Greetings, my Princess," said Jena. "It is 1000 Hours Standard Earthtime now. The _Argo_ is under repair and at a late breakfast, guessing from the Earthlings' habits. We are ready."

Invidia nodded. "Thank you for calling, but you do not need my approval, Jena. Strike now, and please come back to me."

Jena smiled and saluted. "We are ready. We begin _now_."

"Win for us, Admiral. Win!" said Invidia.

The _Argo_ was sitting quietly in orbit of Dalsanti at 1003 Hours, resting with her navigation and running lights on so she wouldn't be a hazard to the other EDF or the Gamilon ships operating in close quarters near the rocky Gamilon base world.

On the main bridge, Nova came up with a tray of orange juice.

"Good morning, everyone," she said. "Here's some juice, fresh-squeezed by IQ-9 fifteen minutes ago."

"Thanks," said Eager as he took some juice.

"Thank you," said Sandor as he took some himself.

"How's the repair work?" said Derek, who was manning Combat himself, like old times, with his peacoat off. Domon had finally been sent off to get some much-needed sleep. Nova had slept a little between 0700 to 0930 in a similar catnap, so she was, at least, somewhat refreshed as she walked about in her male-pattern uniform and space boots.

"They're almost done with the work on the port side armor plating," said Sandor. "They've also just replaced and repaired both rocket anchors and their chains."

"Good to know," said Kitano.

Derek nodded as Sasha came up to her post. "Ensign Apprentice Wakefield reporting as ordered," said Sasha.

"Man the radar," said Derek. "Nova, take over from IQ at Analysis when you're done with that juice."

"Yessir," she said. "IQ-9, head down to the second bridge to assist Bando in recalibrating the instruments."

"I'd prefer to be up here with you, Nova," he said. "It's been so long since we've had a good conversation."

Nova smiled and kissed IQ. "That's very sweet of you. Take this tray with you."

"Heading off as ordered," he said as he saluted Nova, who giggled as she sat down beside Derek at Analysis. She immediately caught something glimmering in deep space with her sharp eyes just as Sasha was bringing the radar up on-line.

"Huh?" she said. "I'm spotting several funny glimmers out there to starboard, Derek!" Nova nudged Derek's arm and got him to look.

"Huh?" he said just as Sasha's radar began to bleep.

"Unidentified…" began Sasha just as a barrage of fire slammed into the _Argo's_ starboard side, taking about eight space-suited repair crew members with it.

The bridge lights dimmed and Nova almost fell on her butt screaming as the _Argo_ shook from a second hit a moment later. Not far away, in space, the EDF destroyer _Malenfant_ took two hits and was blown apart, along with a Gamilon destroyer that was nearby. A panting Nova tried to steady herself, but the ship shook again from another hit, and she almost fell out of her chair as she just barely managed to keep her feet on the deck.

Derek killed the running lights at once and he yelled, "Crew! What the hell is going on? Nova, where's your _space legs_?"

"Shaky!" she snapped back as she sat down hard at Analysis beside Derek and hit the alert klaxons as she caught her breath and snapped on her safety harness.

_If that had hit me just right, that might have caused a miscarriage right there,_ Nova thought in fear and apprehension as she concentrated on her panel as the emergency lights came up.

A moment later, Sasha called out from her post, "Enemy fleet spotted! Eighty degrees to port! Range, eight megameters, speed, nineteen space knots! Spotted, two heavy spacecraft carriers, four light spacecraft carriers, three space battleships, and six destroyers! Identified as Cometine!"

"We are under attack!" yelled Derek into the PA. "Comet Empire fleet! All hands to combat stations! Repeat, _all hands to combat stations_!"

"Enemy fleet is launching attack boats and planes!" called out Nova from her post.

"_Crap_!" called out Derek as Kitano brought up the engines and began taking evasive action as more fire blasted in from the Cometine space battleships. One of the beams was one of their deadly shock cannon beams; a nearby Gamilon destroyer was caught in the deadly vortex and crushed just as the EDF destroyer _Bartram_ perished in a similar horrid fashion. "Maximum power to main guns!" snapped Derek as he frantically worked the familiar controls himself. "We have to get those space battleships first! If one of those shock beams hits us, we are _finished_!"

"We also need fighter cover, sir," said Kitano.

"I was thinking of that!" hissed Derek as he and Nishina worked together to get the main guns aimed. "Hardy! Wakefield! Launch all planes! We have to get those carriers! Avoid the battleships! We're attacking those now!"

"Roger!" called out Hardy. "Taking off now!"

A moment later, he and the rest of the Tigers and Trojans roared out into space.

From his post, Homer said. "Wildstar! Message from the _Arizona_!"

"Put it on the main video panel!" said Derek.

Wildstar looked up at Captain Venture, who sat in darkness himself in the _Arizona__'s _emergency lighting. "An attack is coming in from another corridor, Wildstar!" said Venture. "Black Nebulans, off near the asteroid field between this planet and the ninth planet!"

"Damn!" said Wildstar. "How big is the fleet?"

"Aliscea says at least forty ships. When can you get here?" said Venture as his image began to blur on the screen.

"As soon as possible, I hope," said Wildstar. "Cometines got us pinned down while we were finishing up the repair work! We were hoping to leave for Iscandar in an hour."

"Might be a diversion," said Venture as the jamming became stronger. "We just got word that Iscandar…that…"

Then, there was a loud blasting noise, and Mark's image faded away altogether in a burst of static.

"Venture!" yelled Wildstar.

A moment later, a horrid red flash appeared outside the _Argo's_ windows.

"Second fleet!" said Nova from her post. "I'm reading Black Nebulan beta energy emissions!"

"Range of second fleet, thirteen megameters! Twenty ships!" cried Sasha.

"Missiles _approachin_!" yelled Eager. "Big damn honkin' wave of missiles!"

"Main guns ready," said Nishina.

"FIRE!" yelled Wildstar as he worked the controls himself.

The _Argo_ returned fire, trying to get the Black Nebulans and the Cometines at once.

It hit Wildstar that it was a very smart, malicious and twisted mind that had planned this attack.

His whole task force was pinned down defending a small Gamilon base, while, not far away, he got word that Iscandar itself might be under attack.

_Someone's trying to keep us from getting to Iscandar,_ thought Derek. _But why?__ What are they cooking up out there? What is going on?_

From her post, Sasha screamed abruptly and fell on her radar screen with her nose bleeding.

Derek and Nova ran to her while Nova staunched the nosebleed as fast as she could.

"What happened?" cried Derek while Nova called for medics from the main radar.

"Psychic…flash…" said Sasha. "Iscandar's…under attack…Mother…"

"What's wrong with your mother?" cried Nova as she tried to get Sasha's hemorrhaging nosebleed to stop with nothing more than her bare hands by making Sasha lay with her head back at her post while Nova clasped her nose.

"Horrible…attack," said Sasha. "Gorbas…hitting…Mother Town…Mother's hurt! And Ekogaru…he…"

"Strong signal coming in from the Comet!" said Homer. "Video panel on!"

There was an image of only a dark face in shadow with gleaming blue eyes as a horrible laughing voice voice rolled across all of the circuits, heard by the entire Star Force, and Hardy, Brew, Hartcliffe, Bangs…and Wakefield, as well as by Alex Wildstar on the _Princess Astra_ and by Leader Desslok himself on his new flagship, known as the _Excelsior_, which was just leaving Gamilon. The image disappeared from the screen a moment later as IQ-9 came onto the bridge to begin capturing the image on video. It was replaced by a weirder image; that of a skull with gleaming blue eyes floating in space before the _Argo_ in some weird bluish gas field…or ectoplasmic field? At any rate, the weird phantom was seen before the _Argo_, before her pilots, before the Arizona, and before Desslok's ship.

The weird phantom was also seen by Starsha in her palace on Iscandar as she clutched at her chest in agony.

The image was even seen in Earth Defense Headquarters as everything in the Operations room went black, and Commanding General Singleton stood grimly in the darkness, watching as the phantom seemed to appear right in Operations before the screen like a ghost. Singleton listened grimly as Ekogaru spoke. "Oh, yess….Earth Defense Command, Starsha, Desslok. All of you at once. You have trifled with me for the last time, my enemies! You laugh today. Tomorrow, you shall worship me, in hate, in loathing, and in FEAR!"

"Not bloody likely," said Singleton in a whisper on Earth as he saw men and women crossing themselves and getting out Buddhist rosaries, among other things, at the sickening apparition of evil that had appeared right in mid-morning in the Tokyo Megalopolis.

Deke recognized that horrible, dragging voice at once as he looked up at the weird Halloween-like skull face that hovered before his cockpit and before the nose of his plane…he had actually tried shooting at it but it had just laughed at him and had raised a skeletal middle finger at him in salute; Stovall, being used as a willing puppet by the Dark Lord Ekogaru.

Ekogaru said, "Derek Wildstar, you fool. You wondered what was keeping you from getting to Iscandar? It is I, and the strategy of those under me, yes. Sasha, like the glimpse of pain I gave you? Your mother will die, soon. Unless you can do something about it. Like that, Wakefield? You never liked your mother-in-law Queen Starsha much, Wakefield. I know that. You'll be happy when I kill her, _won't_ you? Won't you just love it, _Deekeesticks_?" said Ekogaru sarcastically. "The Dark Nebulans will soon bring her to me, Deekee. Hopefully dead. So I can stuff her myself and keep her around as a doll! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA _HAAAA_!"

"You, Ekogaru, are something from the pit of hell!" yelled back Deke from his plane, heard throughout the fleet. "And you ain't much better, _Stovall_!"

"Dekesticks," sneered Stovall over the speakers. "I'm in the Comet Empire city, Dekesticks. Come and get me, Sticks, you damned Plebe! I never recognized you, and I never will! If you have the balls, that is. If you can even find me! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! That's if we don't kill _Sasha_ first on your old boat of a Goddamn ship! I always told ya the _Argo_ sucked! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

"You stink," said Ekogaru as he leered at Sasha, who was crying in agony as Nova and another medic worked at staunching her nosebleed.

"How original," gasped Sasha as she looked up at the phantom from her post. "The best you can do is a bad Halloween tactic?"

"I can do much better," said Ekogaru. "Aliscea has just tried to come here and attack me. I stopped her. I can stop you at a moment's notice, too…all of you, but I think I'll let this battle go on for a while. Why? I like chaos. I like humiliating your sort. And, in case you haven't noticed, I'm also a sadist."

"Like we just noticed!" barked Nova as she tried to comfort Sasha.

Ekogaru laughed one last time and vanished as more missiles blasted into the _Argo._

"We have to fight our way out of this!" said Wildstar. "Tigers, Trojans, ignore what you just saw! Concentrate on getting those carriers! Medic, get Ensign Wakefield out of here! Nova, take her post!"

Nova nodded as she helped the medic walk Sasha out of her chair. Then, with Sasha's blood still drying on her hands, Nova strapped herself in and said, "The Cometine fleet is the greater threat, Derek! Those carriers are the closest to us now. If they launch planes…"

"If those battleships get a good bead on us with those shock guns, we're deep-sixed, too," said Derek. "Hardy! Get your planes in there to disable those flight decks, and then get back to the ship. We have no time for a long battle! We have to take them out now!"

"Acknowledged," said Hardy. "What are you thinkin?" said Hardy.

"I have an idea," said Derek. "Nova, put a tactical plot up there on the main screen…now!"

"Yessir," said Nova as she scanned and then put a tactical up on the main screen…"

"If we can warp…right there," said Wildstar as he pointed at a spot where the enemy fleets intersected. "We'll have to get behind them, and get our fleet to clear the way, and we'll have just one chance, but…."

"Wildstar!" said Sandor. "That's too dangerous! How do we know they'll _hold _that position?"

"We'll use ourselves as bait," said Derek as he opened a small hatch and put something around his neck.

"Derek!" said Nova. "You're not…"

"Get yours ready, too, Nova. We'll have to do this fast. Then, we have to get to Iscandar."

Nova nodded and she got out the same thing Derek had on around his neck.

A pair of anti-flash goggles…

Nova then smiled a little as she thought, _Wave motion gun? It might work. It just might…_

**IV. DEATH COMES TO PARADISE**

**Iscandarian Defense Fleet Spacecraft Carrier _Princess Astra_**

**In Orbit over Planet Iscandar**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1023 Hours Earth Space-Time**

**  
**Over Iscandar, the _Princess Astra_, and Admiral Alex Wildstar, were in a horrible battle for their lives….

"How many of them are there?" asked Alex from the Captain's chair.

"I'm reading over sixty ships," said Dana, a young Iscandarian woman who was the ship's radar officer.

"Admiral Wildstar, I don't know how long we can remain in a sustained gun battle like this," said Conor, who was the ship's XO. He was sitting at the Combat console.

"I can't let them get to Mother Town!" said Alex. "So, we have to keep on fighting. We have no choice!"

Conor nodded, saying, "Open all guns, once again! Target, enemy destroyers! FIRE!"

The _Princess Astra_ bravely fired her main guns, cruising on above Iscandar as she smoked and burned. At the moment, the mighty spacecraft carrier was taking damage similar to the sort that the _Argo_ herself was taking only two planets away. However, she may as well have been a universe away right now as far as Alex Wildstar and his embattled fleet were concerned.

"Where the heck is the Gamilon Deep Space Fleet?" snapped Alex.

"Sir," said Lieutenant Lori Cialna, a young Pellian lady who was serving as his communications officer. "The main Gamilon Fleet reports that they should be in position to back us up in seven minutes. Oh…another contact!"

General Fraken appeared on the _Princess Astra's_ main screen a moment later. "Admiral," said Fraken. "We're fighting a major battle with the Cometines and Dark Nebulans at the moment. I've just heard from your brother, Admiral. He says he's planning a strategy that will be decisive; then he hopes to come to your aid."

"I hope it's soon," said Alex. He looked over and saw a young figure running on the bridge. "Cadet Hartnell-Iiyama!" said Alex from his post as he looked at Jonathan. Jonathan now had on a full red and black spacers' uniform, but he had a cut on his head and his face was dirty.

"Sir, I've been sent up here by the medics. Lieutenant Parkman crashed on the flight deck when refueling with me in his aft gunhouse in his Tiger. He didn't make it. Neither did Ensign Sura, sir."

"Why were you sent up here?" demanded Conor as he ran over to his son and brought him up to the Astro-Compass.

"To tell you I'm all right, sir…I…they ordered me to..I…They want me to get new orders…"

Alex looked at the boy and he looked at the fighting outside. _He's got spirit_, he thought. _Reminds me a little of Derek at his age…fourteen and Derek wanted to take on the whole universe too after our mother and father were killed by that planet bomb…Derek couldn't wait to leave that orphanage and enter the Space Fighters' Training School. Wish I could have taken better care of you, Derek, but it was hard to do so being a junior officer in the Space Defense Forces in those days… I hope I can bring Astra around and that he can go to the Academy like Sasha did. Sasha…my daughter..I hope you're all right. Starsha and I can't wait to see you again after this fighting ends…_

"Conor, send him to Sickbay," said Alex. "He'll be safe there and he can help the medics…he…"

"Good idea, sir," said Conor. The bearded young Iscandarian officer in red and black hugged his foster son and said, "Jon, we'd like you to go to Sickbay…"

"I'm not hurt…bad…" said Jonathan.

"To help the medics…and keep you out of trouble. I don't think we can find another pilot who will take you in as part of his crew now that Lieutenant Kyle Parkman is…dead. He was a good leader for the Red Wolves…and a great pilot…he…"

"Sir!" yelled Dana from the radar as her strawberry blonde hair flew all over the place. "Two ships just warped in front of us…they…"

Then, the Black Nebulan ships fired.

The lights on the _Princess Astra's_ bridge dimmed, and then went out as the spacecraft carrier shook like a hut from two very bad hits.

A third hit came and the Astro-Compass exploded.

"GET DOWN!" yelled Conor as he flew on his foster son's back and shoved him to the deck as exploding glass and metal flew all over the place.

Jonathan hit the deck hard with his father on top of him.

Then, he heard and saw no more for a while, being knocked out.

Maybe that was more merciful for him than actually seeing what _happened _a split-second later.

Although he would see the aftermath of it…

Not far away, the Gamilon Deep Space Fleet finally sortied, coming around Gamilon from its nightside like avenging angels of destruction.

Leading the fleet was a brand-new Gamilon/Garuman space battle fortress that had just completed the first stage of her space trials; the brand-new flagship of the Empire, under the personal command of Leader Desslok.

Desslok's new flagship was named the _Excelsior_, and she was a beautiful, fast, and very powerful blue and red engine of destruction.

The _Excelsior_ was the biggest ship yet created by the Gamilons. She was over a kilometer long, was incredibly massive, heavily armored, and Desslok's scientists and engineers had told him that she was unbeatable and unsinkable.

"Running at full speed," said a Gamilon officer proudly on her bridge as Desslok stood near his command station. "We'll be in main gun range in ten minutes. We'll be in range of the main armament in five minutes."

"Five minutes," mused Desslok. "It may not be enough for Iscandar," he said as Talan stood beside him and they could see the accursed Black Nebulan fleet showing itself in all of its ugliness. "We'll need the main armament, Talan…right away."

"The proton missiles?" he said.

Desslok shook his head. "No. Our prime weapon."

"Leader Desslok!" said Talan. "The Hyper-Desslok Cannon has never been tested! We…"

"No time to test it like the present, when Starsha needs our aid…more than ever," said Desslok. Desslok nodded to a tech. "Make initial firing preparations for the Hyper-Desslok Gun!"

"Yessir," said the tech, one of Desslok's minions in a grey uniform. "Transfer tertiary circuits to the Hyper-Desslok Gun!"

"Transfer of energy beginning," said an engineer. "Powering up third energy generator! Power to port and starboard main engines normal and continuing. We can continue to manuever and fire secondary weapons during the charge process, Leader Desslok, just as designed!"

Desslok smiled grimly with satisfaction. The great classified secret at the heart of his new ship; a secret he did not even intend to reveal yet to Earth or even Iscandar, was that his new ship did not _need_ to shut down its main engine in order to fire his surge cannon. The reason why was because his massive new space battleship had three energy generators; one for each of her massive engines and ship's power, and one dedicated only to firing his Hyper-Desslok gun.

Desslok's new weapon was also incredibly powerful and could be charged in full in less than 100 seconds. Desslok smiled as his firing grip came up and an engineer said, "Energy level, now forty percent! Sixty seconds to firing!"

"Full power to our engines!" barked Desslok. "We have to get there in time. Is it safe to warp yet?"

"We don't know what it would do," said Talan nervously. "So we disabled that feature as a safety measure during charging of the Gun until we test it…"

"Three minutes to range of the enemy fleet!" barked another officer.

"Thirty seconds to firing power!" said the engineer. "Energy level now seventy-five percent!" he said as the Hyper-Desslok cannon bleeped incredibly fast with its energy buildup.

"Open main safety lock!" snapped Desslok. His target scope lit up. "Two minutes to firing range…excellent!"

"Engaging vanguard of enemy fleet," said a voice from deep in the bowels of the _Excelsior_.

"Drop Desslok mines!" ordered Desslok.

"Dropping mines!" said another crewmember as a cloud of mines dropped from the keel of the Excelsior and began to gather before the ship's bow by remote control.

"Ready for transport," said an officer.

Desslok nodded. "_Go!_" he said.

The mines were warped out before the Black Nebulan fleet by the _Excelsior's_ new SMITE units a moment later.

"That will hold them off, Lord," said a Gamilon officer.

"Until I am ready," said Desslok as the status lights went green in his target scope. "Thirty seconds to firing range!" he said. "Energy charge complete!" he said. "Make final preparations for firing of the Hyper-Desslok Cannon!"

"I hope we can save Iscandar," said Talan.

"I am not concerned," said Desslok. "We shall win…"

On Iscandar itself, enemy troops had just begun to land on New Fiji Island as some of the landing ships swept in…

The small city was in panic as Black Nebulans ran amok, shooting at people wherever they could find them.

The Pellian part of the fighter base where Invidia had stayed a few weeks ago was now under attack; Pellian officers and men and women took cover as best they could as Black Nebulans attacked their planes.

The same part of the base where Deke and the Trojans had been just a few weeks ago was also under attack by Black Nebulans landing with jetpacks.

Commodore Priceman, the EDF Fighter Base Commander, was behind his desk in his headquarters, shooting at Black Nebulan troops who had just raped and murdered his secretary on her own desk.

Priceman's Astro-Automatic finally ran out of energy. The "Iceman" resorted to throwing a picture of his dead wife at his enemies before he blew himself and about ten Black Nebulans up with a hand grenade he had secreted in his desk. It was a gruesome death, but at least he died a hero.

The Cocoanut Grove (which would later reopen) had just had its last call for a while as Black Nebulans kicked over tables and pillaged the bar at random, stealing bottles of liquor as someone set the piano on fire with a flame-thrower. They left the place burning.

Outside, some troops pounced on a poor Earthling woman walking with her baby boy. She was the wife of a scientist, and had never done any harm to anyone. A lone Gamilon trooper in brown armor tried to defend her and her honor, but he was killed. She screamed as she was attacked, and screamed again as she saw her son's brains smashed out against a wall as a laughing Black Nebulan smacked the baby against the wall. She kept on screaming throughout the attack she was subjected to in an alley, and only stopped screaming after her tormentors stripped her of everything and cut her throat.

"Did she have a map in her handbag?" asked one trooper.

"Yes, Commander Lurgis," said another one. "Look. It shows the way to Mother Town!"

"Up the Great Continent," said another trooper. "Not far. We didn't get that much resistance here, even from the Gamilons," said the trooper as he kicked the dead body of the Gamilon soldier who had gone down fighting in an attempt to guard the Earthling woman the squad had just robbed, raped, and killed in the alley after smashing her baby boy's head against the wall.

"These people are going to be easy to rule," said Lurgis.

"Yes, no spirit!" roared the other one.

Other such tragedies followed on New Fiji Island. It was a dark day for Iscandar as the smoke of the burning of the city and the smoke of battle began to blot out the sun.

On the _Princess Astra_, in the meantime, the Iscandarian spacecraft carrier was badly crippled.

Smoke rose on the bridge from the destroyed Astro-Compass.

That wasn't the worst blow they had taken, though.

Alex and Dana were pulling Conor gently off on Jonathan. Jonathan survived with a cut lip and bruises; but only because his adoptive father had shielded him from the blast.

Conor had several shards of glass and metal in his back and in his lungs. He could no longer move or feel his legs because his spine was severed, and every time he coughed, bright red foamy blood spewed from his mouth. Several arteries in his lungs were cut.

He was dying, and he knew it.

"Jonathan…I'm glad I was here for you…at the end," he said.

"Father, don't die!" said Jonathan.

"Try not to cry so much," whispered Conor before he coughed again. "You'll have to be strong…for your mother…please tell Astra I loved her. My love-bond with her is severing, even now. She reaches to me from Earth…but I can barely answer her back. You need to be strong now, Jonathan….you have to be a man…for…her…"

"I can't go to the Academy now! You know she won't allow it! You have to be there for me!"

Conor's eyes looked out into space, as if he saw something none of them could see. "That may be right, but your godfather Derek will make sure of it. Alex," he gasped at Admiral Wildstar. "Make sure your brother Derek and his poor Nova are told after the battle…if they live through this with us. With the foresight of the dying man, I can foresee them standing with Jonathan at my grave. Please bury me on Iscandar after my spirit flies. The Hills of Rememberance. Bury me near the first Princess Astra; she who you named this ship after. My Astra will someday lie in the ground next to me, in the distant future, when your Sasha becomes the new Queen. Astra will never come to the throne…this will break her spirit….why now? Why now?" Conor coughed again and said, "Jonathan, poor Astra will say things to you in her grief, after I am gone. Don't take her to heart…and…listen to Derek….and listen to Nova. The parents you lost on the _Westhampton Beach_…brought you through babyhood…Astra and I…raised you…through boyhood…"

"Father, why won't Mother stay with me?" sobbed Jonathan.

"She'll…blame…you…" gasped Conor. "Grief. I forgive her. Alex, I charge you with making sure his godparents finish raising him. Your brother, Derek, will be his new father…even though he does not yet know it, he is a father as of today. Nova…will soon bear her own. Make sure she raises him along with the brother named after you and his little sister named after the angel of light. He will be the oldest…protector of his baby brother and sister…Derek and Nova…will teach him…how to be a man…I wish I could have done so…I…"

"Please don't go!" sobbed Jonathan as he hugged his foster father.

"Jon, I have to…the house of my spirit crumbles…" Conor went silent and then said, "Alex…sir…they're here for me…Astra…the sister-in-law you never knew…is here with Trelaina…they are beckoning me to come with them…I go now…goodbye…"

There came an explosion outside as Conor drew in a ragged last breath, and went slack and empty as that last breath was exhaled and he turned limp in his foster-son's arms as the light left his open eyes forever.

Jonathan wailed and held his foster-father as a weeping Alex and Dana tenderly closed Conor's eyes. A moment later, medics came with a stretcher for the body. Jonathan stood numbly sniffing into his sleeve as the body was hauled up on the stretcher. A sheet went over the corpse as a nurse in summer uniform said to Jonathan, "Come on. There are living wounded you can help with."

Jonathan bit his lip, and saluted Alex. Alex saluted back and hugged him and whispered, "Be strong…"

"That's easy for you to say, sir," said Jonathan bitterly. "You didn't lose your dad…"

"No, but I helped my brother identify what was left at the planet bomb site after we did," retorted Alex. "I'm sorry…I have a battle to fight."

Jonathan nodded. "Get those Black Nebulan bastards!" he whispered.

"I will…"

"Ten seconds to firing!" said an officer on the bridge of the _Excelsior _as Desslok started into his target scope. "Target…main body of Black Nebulan Fleet! One Gorba Auto-Fortress, many battleships and escorts…"

"This had better do it," said Talan.

"I'm sure it will," said Desslok. "Hyper-Desslok Cannon, FIRE!"

Desslok pulled back the trigger as he fired his new flagship's dread weapon right at the heavily armored Gorba from which Admiral Dega had just demanded their surrender and Iscandar's surrender.

The new cannon worked just as Desslok's engineers had adverstised.

The energy flow was perfect.

Deadly pink energy surged from the _Excelsior's_ bow into the heart of the Black Nebulan fleet.

Dega screamed as his Gorba was covered with energy, and then, the energy boiled through even its armor as it dissolved and came apart. The Gorba blew apart at last.

Not far away, Desslok's former flagship, the red command spacecraft carrier _Farushar_, was firing its Desslok Cannon point-blank at Meldazz's own Gorba ship under the orders of Captain Nazemayo, its new commander. Meldazz looked nervously at Dega's ship, and was glad that he had escaped the holocaust. But, he only laughed as the Desslok Cannon beam from the _Farushar_ smashed into his ship's armor and did nothing.

Meldazz only laughed as the red carrier sat there and did nothing. He laughed again as he opened his Gorba's main guns under the armor belt.

And, he laughed again as he fired and fired and fired until the _Farushar_ was nothing but scrap metal, defeated at last, luckily without the Leader aboard. The carrier, originally laid down on old Gamilon in 2199, had lasted through eight years' worth of honorable service. It went down fighting to the end as Nazemayo died with "Long Live Leader Desslok!" on his lips, a loyal soldier of the Empire to the end.

Desslok bowed his head as he watched Nazemayo's end. "Farewell, friend," he said. "Talan, bring us about! Our second barrage is meant for that arrogant Meldazz! Prepare to fire the Hyper-Desslok cannon _again_!"

But, the Gorba and her remaining ships just warped away, retiring from the battle as Iscandar continued to burn below them. "Cowards!" yelled Desslok with a raised fist. "Stand and fight like _men_, you jackals!"

Then, messages began flowing into the _Excelsior_. "Leader Desslok!" gasped Talan as he came up and saluted.

"Talan?" said Desslok. "Why are you so..?"

"Gamilstadt, sir. They're hitting the capital on Gamilon! More of those…fortresses!"

"More of them," hissed Desslok. "Very well…we shall warp! Destination.._right__ over my capital on Gamilon!_ If they hurt my wife, son, or my citizens, they shall face my wrath!" roared Desslok. "Take us out of here! Sadly, we must wait until later to aid Iscandar…I only pray…Wildstar were here."

The fleet warped out a moment later.

**V. ENDING A HORRID DELAY**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Near Planet Dalsanti**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1105 Hours Earth Space-Time**

The _Argo_ had performed her warp.

The _Arizona_ and the other ships would be here in three more minutes, but the Tigers and Trojans were in, and Deke was one of those on the port side observation deck, standing near Hardy, Brew, and Bangs as an ominous thrumming roar resounded throughout the _Argo's_ hull.

"I recognize that sound," said Deke. "But it sounds even more powerful on the _Argo_ than it did on the _Arizona_…" said Wakefeild.

"When we hear that, we know Wildstah's _had it_ with the enemy," said Hardy with an evil grin.

Then, a moment later, Wildstar's voice came up on the PA speakers over the sound of the charging wave motion gun. "Fifteen seconds to firing! All hands, _brace for recoil shock_! Energy level one hundred and twenty percent! Ten seconds to firing!"

On the _Argo's_ bridge, all hands now had on their goggles as Wildstar himself stared through the firing scope with his hands on the firing grip. "Enemy in range!" cried Nova from her radar.

"Begin final countdown!" snapped Wildstar.

"Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…final sequence completed…FIRE!"

The energy glow at the _Argo's_ bow grew luridly bright as Derek fired the wave motion gun.

And the wave gun spoke, blasting a cataract of blue energy at the enemy fleet just as two Cometine space battleships finally their deadly shock cannons right at the _Argo_ from seven megameters' range. The deadly surges blasted towards the _Argo_, but they did not prevail against the offensive punch of the deadly surge of energy from the wave motion gun, which scattered them to nothingness.

A shocked Admiral Jena watched his own doom as his flagship and the rest of his fleet were surrounded by lurid, bright light. He screamed as his body dissolved, never to return to his Princess again.

The Black Nebulan fleet that had backed him up also perished, and not a single enemy ship was left at Dalsanti. The remainder of the wave motion gun beam roared brightly into space as Deke, Brew, and the others stood with their mouths open as space was filled with light. Then, the _Argo_ began a slow and majestic turn to port, making a final course change as she prepared to lead what remained of her task force onwards to Iscandar at last.

The _Argo _and her task group made a space warp a moment later.

But, would she make it in time?

Or would Iscandar fall in the next few minutes?

In Sickbay, where she was being treated, not even Sasha knew the answer as the _Argo_ roared through subspace.

She would be in battle again in just a moment….

But to what result? The Star Force had won Round Two….

But what about Round Three?

**TO BE CONTINUED…. **


	3. Chapter 3

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY**

**Being the eighth part of _THE NEW COMET_-- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of **Derek A.C. Wakefield** (as usual)

**ACT THREE: ISCANDAR AFLAME**

**I. A TRAP IS SET**

**Spacecraft Carrier _Shiryu_**

**Space, Near Iscandar**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1122 Hours Earth Space-Time **

The _Argo_ was speeding to the aid of Iscandar, but, in the meantime, the horrid Black Nebulan attack continued.

The EDF spacecraft carrier _Shiryu_ and her escorts shepherded the battered _Princess Astra_ back to Iscandar. After completing that errand, making sure that the carrier was safe back in the sea near Mother Town, the _Shiryu_ and her escorting cruisers and destroyers went into battle with Lady Sarda's fleet.

The _Shiryu_ had her flight deck badly damaged in battle, so she was acting as a Fleet battleship now, firing her guns and missiles like crazy as she smoked.

Near her, the EDF Patrol Cruiser _Saint Lawrence_ took a dead-on hit from a Black Nebulan space battleship, and she blew apart with a beautiful but deadly explosion as the burning _Shiryu_ took hit after hit while trying to fight on.

"Commodore!" said Raful's radar officer, a chubby young man named Ensign Harrison Parkford. "Heavy space battleship approaching our fleet to aft at high speed! Distance, three megameters, speed, twenty-one space knots! She just came out of warp! A second ship just warped out behind her, with several destroyers around…"

"Identification?" snapped Raful.

"Some of the destroyers are Gamilon, sir!" said the radar officer. "And some are _ours_! As well as the battleships! Video panel change!"

The crew of the embattled _Shiryu_ cheered as they recognized the shape of the nearest new arrival. "So, you guys finally got here!" said Commander Shimaseki.

"The Star Force!" cried Louisa Turrell from her post. "Oh! Message from Commodore Wildstar!"

Wildstar's face came up on the screen. He had on only his white and red Star Force uniform, and he looked sweaty and stressed. Behind him, he could see that Yamazaki had a bandage on around his head, and that at her radar, Nova sat there with what looked like dried blood on her cheek.

"Sir," said Raful. "You like like hell."

"No comment," said Wildstar. "We won out there at the system's edge. Did _you_ see Ekogaru?"

"Yes…his phantom was as big and ugly as life, Wildstar. This is one sick war. Here to back us up?"

Derek nodded. "Reduce speed and fall back and get behind us. I'm taking command of this fleet. Then we'll get rid of that enemy fleet and try to relieve Iscandar. Is it under attack?"

"Yes, from many ships," said Raful. "We're in combat with some of them now."

"We sort of got that idea," said Wildstar with a slightly sardonic smile as he wondered what had created the gas cloud that the _Argo_ had just blundered into before Iscandar. "We've got your back, Commodore. Don't worry."

Raful nodded as the screen went dark.

A moment later, the _Argo_ was firing her guns at the Black Nebulans like mad, combined with gunfire from the _Arizona_ and the EDF and Gamilon destroyers that were accompanying them.

On her flagship, Sarda gritted her teeth. She thought, _This will be a hard one until we got those Gorbas here as reinforcements. I just have to hold the line and make sure they don't get down there to muck up our landing until the heavy ships show up…which, hopefully, will be soon….very soon…_

On the _Argo_, Wildstar just kept on firing his guns until Domon showed back up.

In a pause in the combat, Wildstar acknowledged Domon's presence and said, "You take over in a minute!"

"Yessir," said Domon.

Wildstar stood up and prepared to run to the Captain's station as Nova said, "_No!_ New radar contacts spotted! Three of them! No! Make that _four_! They're huge!"

"Put it up on the video panel!"

"Yessir!" said Nova as she and the bridge crew looked up at three Black Nebulan Gorba auto-fortresses, each of them over seven hundred meters long. One of them was between the _Argo_ and Iscandar as it moved forward slowly and ominously until it almost blotted out the view ahead of the bridge windows. Domon stood behind behind Wildstar, who was on his feet at his post looking at the huge, ugly fortress as it sat in front of them, and also apparently began filling space with some kind of strange gas from some ports on the side of it that they could not see. Derek guessed that those hideous machines were the source of the gas cloud. Derek remembered Gamilon General Lysis had needed a natural nebula at Rainbow Cluster back in 2200 to interfere with their radar. Now, as Derek saw Nova tuning her radar like mad to try and get it to work…he saw that the Black Nebulans were able to bring this sort of devilry _with_ them in their huge fortresses!

One of them began shooting at the _Argo_ like mad. Soon, the Star Force was caught in a deadly crossfire as the _Arizona_ was forced to retreat by heavy missiles being fired right at her from another one of the Gorbas.

"Damned Black Nebulan _Balrogs_!" muttered Domon as he recalled a popular EDF nickname for the horrible horned black space fortresses. The term had originated after the _Argo_ had met her first one near the end of the Rikasha Incident in the spring of 2202, over five years ago. The _Balrog_ was a demonic horned monster from the underworld from the _Lord of the Rin_gs book and movie series, and it was an apt nickname for the hideous Black Nebulan war machines. "How many of those things do they have, Wildstar?"

"No one knows," said Wildstar. "Desslok told us that this empire was an ally of Invidia's and that they were almost wiped out by Ekogaru. Why are they on his team now?"

"It's weird," said Kitano. "It seems that Ekogaru is drawing every evil creep in the known cosmos into his service, and…"

"It's frightening," said Nova. "I'm scared to think of what thet might pull next…I get a horrible feeling from looking at those ships."

"Me, too, Nova," said Derek.

"Receiving a message from the enemy command ship!" said Homer. "Right to _us_!"

"Put it up on video," snapped Wildstar as he made two fists and gritted his teeth.

A moment later, a grey-blue Black Nebulan with a bald head and an arrogant nose appeared on the _Argo's_ screen. "Young man," he sneered at Derek. "I take it that you are Commodore Derek Wildstar?"

"I am," said Derek.

"I am Baron Meldazz, Second Admiral of the Black Nebula Empire's fleet under Holy Leader Skaldart. We are sworn to serve Princess Invidia and the Dark Lord she serves so willingly. This war is none of your concern. Leave Iscandar to us, as well as Gamilon. Do so, and Princess Invidia will be more inclined to be merciful to you when she comes to Earth at last…in order to enforce the surrender that your sort agreed to years ago. She said she will even show _you_ mercy, you professional renegade!"

"I must refuse your offer, Baron Meldazz," replied Derek. "We swore long ago to aid my sister-in-law Queen Starsha after she aided Earth. Starsha is married to my brother Alex and we would never abandon them. Leader Desslok is also our sworn ally."

"Yes, I know, the man who almost wiped out your race?" said Meldazz. "That is _odd_."

"Desslok realized we loved Earth as much as he loved Gamilon, so he left the service of Princess Invidia and her father Zordar long ago to aid us. He helped us win our freedom from Zordar long ago, as well, and he then aided us against the Rikashans and your oh-so-omniscent master Ekogaru. Go tell your Dark Lord _that_."

"This is what I have to tell you," snapped Meldazz. "Withdraw and surrender now. If you do so, we will be inclined to be merciful when we come to Earth with Princess Invidia. I say it only one more time. Withdraw. If you like to live, that is..."

"Meldazz, I am _not_ about to surrender," said Wildstar in a tone of voice that made Nova very proud of him. There were times where Derek really annoyed her, but she loved him very much. It was hard not to love him when carrying the children they had made.

"Good going, sir," muttered Kitano near him.

"We'll see," whispered Derek. "Maybe I can get this joker so mad he'll mess up."

"Meldazz?" demanded Wildstar. "What do you think? Will _you_ surrender? You may have faith in your leaders, but do they have faith in _you_? Ekogaru and Invidia have a habit of tossing aside their tools after they are done with them. Do _you_ want to be the next one they use and leave to die?"

"That will not happen. As for you…very well," said Meldazz. "You are an obstinate little insect. Prepare, therefore, for your _extermination_. I will be glad to see you dead and gone, along with your ancient wreck of a space battleship. You are known meddlers. This universe would be better off without you."

"Why, Meldazz," replied Derek with a smile. "I was about to say the same thing…about _you_."

"I hope you enjoy being _dead_," said Meldazz as he cut off.

The attack began at once as a vicious crossfire blasted into the _Argo_ from three sides.

Derek ordered the refitted main guns fired, hoping that they had more punch than they did five years ago when they had _last_ fought one of these ugly war machines, but all the plasma fire did was skip off the armor of the Gorbas like arrows against the hide of some ancient and hideous elephant.

The _Argo_, needless to say, was in a very tight spot along with the other Earth vessels.

And the ring was closing slowly around them like a vise…

**II. ISCANDAR BESIEGED**

**Planet Iscandar**

**Capital**** City of Mother Town**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1214 Hours Earth Space-Time**

Queen Starsha was in a deadly battle for her life…possibly her very soul.

Ekogaru was reaching towards her and Iscandar.

The Dark Lord was attacking her with every bizarre psychic weapon at his disposal.

Weird, nightmarish visions.

Psychic pain.

The thought of Alex dead, and the thought of her daughter Astra dead, along with the nauseating image of Sasha being tortured in a sphere of energy somewhere.

Starsha was also in severe physical pain because he had flung her against the crystalline walls of a chamber of her palace several times.

Starsha had fought back, shooting energy at the phantom of Ekogaru from her fingertips at least six times. He screamed, he howled, he almost seemed once for a time to be dispelled into smoke, but he came back on the attack each time like a wild bulldog.

And, each time he attacked her, he forced horrible thoughts into her mind as he toyed with her like a cruel panther playing with its prey….

_You are worthless_, he forced her to think.

_Your hope to revive Iscandar was a fool's hope._

_Your world was and is dying; I am only putting it out of its misery…_

_I will break you unless you kill yourself…_

"Kill myself?" muttered a weakened Starsha as she shot energy at the Dark One, for a seventh time.

What Ekogaru was hiding from her was that this psychic battle was beginning to hurt _him_, as well.

This monster knew that if she called to Astrena or Aliscea for backup, he might well be beaten at last.

Ekogaru whispered, as he devised a new, sick form of torment for Starsha. "Give up. Drop this, and go below and destroy Iscandar. My forces are beating you. If you want to remain free…it is time to…DIE!"

Ekogaru's phantom shot energy at Starsha and laughed as she writhed in pain.

"Maybe," gasped Starsha. "Maybe…you are right…"

At the same time, the _Princess Astra_ had just sailed up to the quay at the edge of Mother Town where the _Argo_ had docked so many times in the past.

The difference was that the _Princess Astra_ was horribly battered and she was still actually smoking in several places as she finally dropped anchor and came to a stop.

Admiral Alex Wildstar left command of his battered flagship to others until it was repaired enough so she could fly again. He walked out on the foredeck with Jonathan. The 14-year old was still in shock at his loss as he walked slowly with his black boots scraping the deck, and he asked, "Alex? _Sir_?"

"Yes," said Wildstar in a monotone. Alex was concerned about him, but he was also looking up at the twisted guns and battered deck plates and superstructure of his ship. _I stink as a Captain_, he thought. _I got the _Paladin_ shot out from under me eight years ago today, and now, when they give me a new ship, I almost get her shot out from under me, too. And I took a hell of a lot of people to the grave with me, _he thought morosely as he saw some medics taking a body bag off the ship, followed by another.

Something that he and his brother shared was a tendency towards depression and blaming themselves for things that were actually beyond their control. Alex was too angry at himself to see that bringing this ship home was a miracle, especially for a ship like this, built to a 2201 EDF design over six years old. Alex never knew that there had been some nights on Iscandar where Nova and Starsha had bathed together and then had looked up at the stars from their warm bath and exchanged notes on Alex and Derek and saw that, in many ways, the two brothers were very similar to each other.

Jonathan saw a man who was sulky and incommunicative as he boarded a jetboat for the brief ride across the cove and then the lake that would take them to Mother Town. Alex shut his eyes at the sight the capital of his adopted world burning. _I failed you, Starsha_, he thought. _I really failed you_. _I'll be surprised if you still want me after this…_

Alex and Jonathan finally got into an aircar and they rode up the high hill past burning buildings, and they saw spots where small battles were going on.

A moment later, the city was lit up like the very End as the Dark Nebulans dropped a bomb from a fighter just a few hundred meters away from the Palace.

"They're trying to break us," hissed Alex. "Goddess! How is Starsha taking this?" he asked as the ground shook again from a second bombing a moment later.

"Watch out!" cried Jonathan as a Dark Nebulan shot at them. Alex was slow on the draw, but, luckily, Jonathan had a sidearm and he was quicker. He shot the Black Nebulan with gritted teeth and said, "We're not losing…are we?"

"I don't know," said Alex. "But, where's Desslok? Where's the Star Force? They should have stopped this by now!"

When they got to the coutyard before the Palace, Alex had to shove Jonathan down a few times over to personally exchange fire with some Black Nebulan _and_ Cometine troops with his sidearm. The invaders were almost at his own front door now, and he prayed to destiny that none of them had gotten into the Palace. His black peacoat was soon dusty as he finally made his escape with a few guards.

In the Palace, a lady-in-waiting ran up and said, "Lord Consort, sir! The upper works of the Palace have taken some damage. Queen Starsha awaits you below, in the caverns. She says she has some bad news for you…"

Alex nodded and took a confused Jonathan with him.

"Starsha!" said Alex as he ran up to Starsha, whom he had finally found in a cavern many hundreds of meters deep beneath the palace.

Queen Starsha was standing before a control panel that had had a crystal dome over it. She was weeping, and repeatedly pressing a large, glowing pink button. "It doesn't _work_!" she sobbed. "It doesn't _work_!"

"What is it?" said Alex.

"You don't want to know," sobbed Starsha. "My powers have been compromised by Ekogaru. He has beaten me at last. This was the last-ditch effort to keep ourselves free…at least into the next world, I…but it doesn't _work_!"

"Starsha, what is it that doesn't work?," said Alex. "And have you gone mad? This room is hot. You know how close we're getting to the Iscandarium deposits in this…this deep cavern. It's not safe to be down here for so long…"

"That's where the detonator is," said Starsha. "Please forgive me for not telling you, Alex. I would have told you to get to safety. I could not reach you. So I would have taken you with me, but…"

"Taken me…with you?" said Alex. "Starsha, is this…?"

"Iscandar's last defense," she said. "This was connected to a hyperon bomb detonator unit placed many kilometers below Iscandar's surface. It is an ancient defense of ours in case the Gamilons ever got the bright idea to invade us. It was a doomsday weapon that would have blown apart both our planets by exploding the Iscandarium deposits deep in Iscandar's core."

"You…you would have killed all of us? After we've been fighting for you?" said Alex.

"I am sorry…I am so sorry…please forgive me, Alex! I felt so desperate, and maybe death is better than capture and enslavement. Or have you not noticed they are in Mother Town yet? Didn't you feel the bombs?"

"I saw them," said Jonathan.

"You see, then?" sobbed Starsha as she pushed Alex away for the first time ever as he tried to comfort her. "We failed. Utterly. Why? Because our last effort…it doesn't _work_ anymore!"

"That's because _I_ have disconnected it," said a mocking voice near another control panel as someone suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Alex was shocked to see a man in an EDF Space Marine uniform standing there sipping from a can of Cosmic Cola as if he had a perfect right to be there. The man had red, glowing eyes, and he didn't quite look sane. Then, he smiled and threw the soda can on the floor and stomped on it, not caring about the trash he was leaving around the Royal Palace!

"You're…" said Alex.

"We have met before, Alexander," said the Being sharing Stovall's body with the withering mind of Michael Stovall. "Ekogaru the Great. I, am far older than Starsha's dynasty. Bow before me and worship me, young man. Then I might be merciful. Oh, Starsha. I am back. Here in person, I can finally make you give up."

"You've been hurting her?" snapped Alex.

Starsha nodded, clutching her chest. "We have been in battle for the past hour. He is beginning to beat me, and he showed me that Death is the only…hope…now…"

Alex's response was to grit his teeth and to prepare to fire his sidearm at him. He was attacking his adopted home and he had just injured and possibly deranged Starsha. How far would this demonic creature go?

There was only a subdued clicking noise, and Alex was aghast to see that his Astro-Automatic had just been turned into a child's water pistol in his hand! Jonathan tried the same thing with his sidearm, but he found out all he also had was a water pistol.

Two streams of water hit Stovall's boots in a dribble, but nothing else happened.

Alex then found a large ceremonial sword on a wall hanging in the cavern, and he howled like a _samurai _as he swung it at the Dark Lord's head, meaning to take it off as Starsha sat there sobbing.

Alex found he was just hitting Ekogaru in the neck with a string of frankfurters!

"You know, this can be rather _amusing_," said Ekogaru as Starsha shut her eyes, meaning to attack him psychically with the last of her waning strength. Ekogaru raised his hand and smiled as Starsha intended to shoot an energy force at him. Instead, all that happened was her hand lighting up.

"Oh, how _pretty_, Starsha," mocked Ekogaru as he grinned, smiled…

….and threw Starsha across the room psychically with a finger uplifted. The Queen of Iscandar hit the wall with a horrid smacking noise. It was about the fifth time she had hit a wall in the past hour.

Queen Starsha lay on the floor with her gown slightly up and her sandal-clad feet showing as she sat there with a dazed look on her face. Alex felt nauseated as he saw that Starsha's legs were actually bruised from Ekogaru's vicious attacks.

"I can do things to her that are rather indecent," purred Ekogaru. "But since the lad is here, I'll spare him the sight of anything intended for mature audiences."

Alex knelt beside a dazed Starsha and said, "You are _sick_…"

Starsha bowed her head and said, "Ekogaru, you can have it…"

"What?" said Ekogaru as Alex sat there in shock.

"Iscandar. Spare us, please," said Starsha. She sighed, "You can have it. Peacefully. I surrender. Please stop this fighting and leave us and the Gamilons alone. You can take me first. Just stop this! For the sake of the little children here on Iscandar being born from what is left of our race and the Pellians, just stop this! I'll take off my shoes and worship you, Ekogaru," said Starsha as she pulled off her sandals and prepared to kiss the Dark Lord's feet.

What Starsha got for her pathetic humility and seeming pacifism was a brutal kick in the face from Ekogaru that cut her lower lip open.

"I can read your pathetic little brain like a book," hissed Ekogaru. "You'd surrender and then try to kill me, _right_?" he said as Alex realized how desperate his mate truly was to stop this as he tried to stop the bleeding from her lip.

Starsha nodded like a lost little girl, dazed from her smack into the wall, and drained by trying to fight HIM.

"You people make me sick," said Ekogaru. "I go now. Call for me again through Skaldart when you and Desslok are _really_ ready to surrender!" He laughed and vanished.

"Starsha, I.." said Alex.

"You see how desperate we are," she said in a depressed voice. "My mind is ready to snap…"

"The Star Force is still on its way," said Alex. "Let's go back up in the Palace. Maybe we can see them and Desslok stopping this."

Starsha nodded dully and allowed Alex to walk her out of there with a hand placed on her shoulder. She would never come back to this cavern again as long as she lived as she locked the door on the way out with a code only she knew.

She was battered, hurt, slammed, stunned…

_But not beaten,_ she thought. _Alex, please forgive my temporary lapse. Desslok, forgive me, for I would have cast Gamilon into our sun and out of orbit had I destroyed Iscandar. What was I thinking? I almost destroyed everyone myself…because HE made me do it…_

Queen Starsha was not the only one who was having problems.

Desslok arrived back over Gamilon to find many buildings near his own beautiful palace in rebuilt Gamilstadt also burning as the Black Nebulans bombed. Black Nebulan and Cometine troops had also landed in his city, and they were being just as cruel and vicious to the populace of Gamilon as they were being to the Iscandarians.

Desslok gritted his teeth in rage at the sight of some Cometines…and R'Khells in their evil red uniforms, busy nailing one of his generals, a General Kliendienst, up to a cross in one of the squares of his city. _Even the Cometines were never that vicious and barbaric before_…thought Desslok in rage as he ordered a landing operation to try and save Kliendienst and to save civilians that Desslok noticed were also besieged. _They must have learned the sick art of crucifixion from the R'Khells…or from Ekogaru himself._

"Leader Desslok! They have landing boats over the Ancient Palisades!" said an officer as he came up and saluted.

"Very well!" snapped Desslok. "Talan, send the Fourth Squadron there and have them bombard the enemy ships! For the sake of Astrena and Dellar, this has to be stopped, and now!"

Soon, Gamilon vessels broke off from the main fleet and went into battle over the Palisades.

Now, the fighting covered two planets.

Ekogaru appeared to Invidia at 1300 Hours Earthtime.

"How is the attack proceeding?" asked Invidia.

"Very well. Starsha is close to suicidal. Desslok is being driven into a frenzy because he sees his precious city being burned."

Invidia put up her hand and giggled at that. "I'll bet it is so amusing!"

"Yes. Our Confederation is teaching them that to live, they must capitulate," said Ekogaru.

"Bad news!" said a staff officer to Invida with a salute. "It's the Star Force! They have just broken out of the trap that Meldazz was about to crush them against!"

"What?" hissed Invidia. "NO!"

**III. BREAKING THE SIEGE**

**Near Planet Iscandar**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207**

**1303 Hours Earth Space-Time**

"Dodging missiles!" barked Kitano on the _Argo's_ First Bridge.

The _Argo_ evaded a group of torpedoes fired from one of the Gorbas.

Wildstar had goaded them to fire by attacking the side of the Gorba with the Number One Main turret. He knew it wouldn't do much, but it was meant to get the enemy to fire torpedoes at them.

While they had the torpedo ports open, Kitano brought the ship back up on an even keel while Domon and Nishina worked hard with Number Two and Number Three Turrets. Soon, they were trained on the torpedo ports.

"Ready to fire!" said Domon.

"FIRE MAIN GUNS!" snapped Commodore Wildstar from the Captain's station.

They fired; but these guns were loaded with six deadly wave motion cartridges.

The cartridges blew into the guts of the Gorba and they blew it apart.

Domon laughed and made a fist. "Good one!"

"Reload all guns!" snapped Wildstar.

A moment later, Homer said, "Commodore, Captain Venture seeks permission to attack the second Gorba. He says, and I quote, "_Hey, Derek, you can't get all the glory for yourself, you space cowboy_!""

Nova rolled up her eyes with amusement as Derek snapped back, "Homer, send following message to the _Arizona_: "_Hey Mark, hurry up or I'll get them all, you space jockey! Derek, Space Cowboy_.""

On the _Arizona_, Venture groaned and chuckled as his comm officer read off the message tape from the _Argo_ a moment later. "Oh, go _screw _yourself, you long-haired space cowboy punk!" he muttered with a laugh. "Okay! That's our cue, Mister Rosstowski! Get these guys mad at us!"

"Yessir," said Paul with a grin as Aliscea gave him a thumbs-up from her station. "_Mrs_. Venture, would you be so good as to turn this tub around ten degrees to starboard?" he said.

"Sure, South Philly," said Holly with a wink as she looked at Rosstowski. "To port, ten degrees!"

The _Arizona_ turned and fired her two aft turrets at the second Gorba. The energy did nothing, of course. It responded by opening ports and firing torpedoes at them while using its thrusters to whip around backwards.

It fired torpedoes; one of them missed the _Arizona_, while two others flew towards the Earth fleet.

Now under the command of Commander Ember Tyson, the repaired and refitted patrol cruiser _Danube_ flew up and fired her forward guns at the torpedo, blowing it apart, followed by one more.

However, one torpedo flew on and it struck the _Argo_.

Hard.

The _Argo_ took the hit to her starboard side, and took some heavy damage to the Mechanical Engineering area.

The Dynamic Do-All unit in the ship's interior took major damage, stopping right in the middle of the production of some badly needed replacement missiles for the Black Tigers and Trojans.

But, the hit was felt all the way up to the First Bridge.

Kitano was on his feet, looking over the control panel to manuever the _Argo_ towards the last Gorba; Meldazz's own command ship, which had its fleet gathered around it; just as big and ugly as sin.

When the _Argo_ shook, he fell down and smacked his head…hard…against the edge of a control panel.

From her post, Nova screamed, and, to Derek's shock, with utter disregard for her own safety, she ran up from her post to look at Kitano.

"Lieutenant Commander!" barked Derek. "Back to your post!"

"He's hurt!" cried Nova. She swabbed Kitano's forehead with a cold cloth as he moaned, and said, "You're okay?"

"Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, but…"

"Take my station and sit down!" ordered Nova as she bandaged his head. Then, the _Argo_ shook again from another hit from a Black Nebulan space battleship.

Yamazaki was almost thrown from his chair as the ship keeled over to port in a horrible roll.

Nova threw herself into Kitano's vacant chair and pulled back on the helm yoke as hard as she could with gritted teeth to force the _Argo_ back onto an even keel. She turned the ship about hard to starboard and then relinquished the controls to Eager, who was acting as Assistant Pilot as she ran back to the Tactical Radar and said, "Derek! Huge wave of missiles approaching! That fleet is gathering to get us first like ants from some anthill!"

"Throw us into warp, Eager! Short warp to forty-five degrees, half a megameter away from that Gorba!"

"Then?" said Eager.

"Then, we clear the fleet out, stop all engines, and hope we can pierce that thing's hide in one shot!" snapped Derek.

The _Argo_ warped, to repappear behind Meldazz a moment later.

"They're at our blind side!" snapped one of Meldazz's officers.

"We don't have a blind side!" roared Meldazz.

"We did ever since those two Gamilon battleships rammed us! Torpedo ports five through seven are jammed open, sir! And the thrusters are damaged!"

"Spin us about!" roared Meldazz.

"It'll take one hundred seconds!" he roared.

"Report to Invidia!" roared Meldazz. "Tell her my operation may be endangered!"

On the _Eritz Gatlantis_, a depressed-looking officer came up to Invidia and reported, "Major reverse at Operation Iscandar. Meldazz is reporting that the Gamilons and Earthlings may force him to retreat to a more optimum position. They've destroyed two of the Gorbas with their cursed wave motion cartridges and they have Meldazz on the run!"

"NO!" hissed Invidia.

"It is not as bad as we think," purred Ekogaru."They can't go on forever…"

"Princess!" snapped another officer as he clicked his heels. "Visuals live from the battlefront near Iscandar!"

"Put it on," said Invidia as she shook her head.

Invidia gritted her teeth as she watched the screen filling with light from a feed from one of their recon satellites. Then, she hissed in anger as she saw the _Argo_ firing her wave motion gun at some target.

Then, staticy audio-only came in from Meldazz. "Princess Invidia…they caught us with some trick…_Arizona_ fired wave cartridges at us…warped and damaged our armor, then the _Argo_….wave motion gun…I…ARRRRRRRRGGGHH!"

Then, there was a loud blare of static, and silence. The satellite showed the _Argo's_ engine firing again a moment later, and showed her cruising on...towards Iscandar.

"We are losing!" said Invidia. "Three Gorbas destroyed in less than an hour, and…" she read a report handed to her by another officer. "Sarda's fleet almost destroyed in a rout…and the Gamilons also just got a Gorba…just Skaldart's ship, two more Gorbas, and one hundred twenty warships left? We must withdraw! The damned Star Force is handing us defeat on a silver platter!"

Ekogaru then showed up, and dramatically picked up Invidia by her neck.

"What?" whispered Invidia.

"You cannot give up now!" roared the Dark Lord. "You almost have them beaten! Not much longer, and they will be finished! Press on! Press on! WE MUST WIN!" Ekogaru then screamed and laughed as he tormented Invidia and shook her by her neck. "WE MUST WIN!"

Then, he flung her to the deck like a doll. As she grovelled, he kicked her twice before the shocked Cometine officers. Then, he screamed, "Invidia, do we understand who truly rules here?"

"Yes, Lord," gasped Invidia. "I…"

"Order them to fight on!" he roared. "Do it, or I will kill you! ARE WE CLEAR?"

Invidia nodded as she said, "I..will order…Skaldart…fight on…"

"Good," hissed Ekogaru in satisfaction. "Very, _very_ good!"

**TO BE CONTINUED…. **


	4. Chapter 4

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY**

**Being the eighth part of _THE NEW COMET_-- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of **Derek A.C. Wakefield** (as usual)

_This chapter contains some mature content, and a short scene some might find disturbing…_

**ACT FOUR: DÉJÀ VU….**

**I. TAKING STOCK**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Space, Near Iscandar**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1442 Hours Earth Space-Time **

On the _Argo, _a briefing was taking place in the Central Strategy Room after the Star Force's second major battle while the ship underwent some minor repairs. Among them, as Wildstar had noticed, the ship was being stripped for more combat by having the anchors on her bow and sides and gun-barrel stripes painted out. The mighty old ship now looked a bit more like she had back in 2200.

While Meldazz had been defeated, they knew that a a fleet was regrouping around Skaldart's ship; a fleet that they thought would turn on Gamilon next. But, they were confident that Desslok would be able to take care of that fleet…or so they hoped.

However, relieving Iscandar was Commodore Wildstar's immediate concern as he listened to Nova giving a report of what they had picked up from their Eye in the Sky scanning satellites over Iscandar from both their units and some units recently launched by the Gamilons.

"So, they're in the process of taking New Fiji Island?" said Derek.

Nova nodded. "By this analysis," she said as IQ-9 made a complex computer graphic appear on the deck screen, "eighty-five percent of the Joint Base is now in enemy hands. Maybe eighty-nine percent of New Fiji Island is now in enemy hands. They have been using this base as a departure point for attacking Mother Town."

"Resistance there?" asked Derek.

"Mostly fighter planes of many types," said Eager. "They have about forty landing ships over Iscandar and maybe fifteen or twenty Black Nebulan warships guarding their landing ships."

Wildstar looked over at Captain Venture and Commodore Raful from the _Shiryu_, who was accompanied by his brother Alex from the _Princess Astra_. The _Argo_, _Arizona_, _Shiryu_, and _Princess Astra_ had all taken damage, but all four of these heavy space warships could still throw two hundred and fifty planes into an attack to break the occupation of Iscandar. Also counting the recon planes they had available from some of the patrol cruisers that could act as attack fighters in a pinch, they had two hundred and fifty-eight planes they could strike back with. "We have the planes," said Admiral Alex Wildstar. "The problem is missiles. All told, on all four of our ships, we have just enough missiles to provide for two more deck plane sorties; then we are out of ammo."

"So, in order for this to work," said Derek. "We have only one chance to hit them, and to hit them hard. If we win, we have Iscandar liberated, at least from landing ships and planes. We would then have to send Marines down there to mop up the enemy ground forces."

"With the _Shiryu_ repaired, more or less, I have a lot of Mud Marines embarked who are waiting for some action," said Commodore Raful.

"And I have Iscandarian and Pellian troopers ready to back us up," said Alex.

"And I'm also ready to go in there with my platoon and kick some butt," added Hemsford.

"Finally," said a tall Gamilon who was standing off to one side; a distinguished-looking semi-bald officer with a moustache named General Egon Von Rhys. "I also have troopers waiting aboard several of my own ships. Desslok has given them to me specifcally for mop-up on Iscandar. And Leader Desslok has also said that he will come to Iscandar with his own fleet once the danger to Gamilon is fought off…"

Derek nodded. "It sounds as if we are in good shape. Hardy, when will our plames be re-fueled, re-armed and ready for another mission?"

"Fifteen-thirty, sir."

"Would the rest of you be ready then?" said Derek.

The other commanders nodded.

"Very well, then," said Derek. "We will make preparations for the retaking of Iscandar. At fifteen-thirty, we will begin our advance. At fifteen-forty-five, we launch. Our first target is New Fiji Island. We will have to retake that, hopefully with the runways workable."

"Commodore," said Raful. "As well as my Marines, I have a group of EDF Seabees aboard my spacecraft carrier. They can be landed to repair any needed runways with their equipment as soon as we have something secured. Those men and women can help us fight, too, if needed."

"Reminiscent of some old battles once fought on Earth, huh?" said Derek.

"Yeah!" yelled Deke. "Guadalcanal, sir!"

"Which one?" said Wildstar. "The 1942 World War II operation or the 2036 Unification Wars operation?"

"Both, sir," said Wakefield.

"Good comparison," said Commodore Wildstar. "Okay, people, you know your jobs; _Dismissed_!"

At that, the briefing broke up.

On the _Eritz Gatlantis_, Ekogaru stood behind Invidia's throne. He was clad all in black, and he whispered, "Invidia, encourage them…"

"Yessir," she said. "To _all _forces! We have four major fleets remaining at our beck and call! I will strip our territories, for the most part, of our Territorial Fleets in the next few days! But now, I speak to you," she said as she addressed her four major commanders on a split screen. "Skaldart and Sarda," she said as she addressed the remaining Black Nebulan commanders, who commanded Skaladart's Command Gorba, two other Gorbas, and sixty-five ships "and…Menklen, Timmalz, and Dalphal," she said as Gorse stood there with her. "We do not have much now. However, we have our Terriitorial Fleets of two hundred more vessels, and I have concluded new alliances with Baron Vilzal of what remains of House Pangarda…"

"Wait?" said Gorse. "Invidia, you have made a deal with a Discommended House?"

"You forget _we_ are also _Discommended_ as far as the Grand Emperor goes!" snapped Invidia. "I will make common cause with Vilzal if it earns us four hundred more ships, three more base planets, and two hundred thousand more troops as well as safe haven by Planet Comlassi. And the R'Khells are sending us two hundred more vessels. Some were captured from the Rikashans, some from a race under their sway called the Bolar Federation. They are winning a war against that race, winning rapidly. Six hundred more ships. We can control three planets with those ships and more!"

"We can," said Skaldart. "I accept your offer to serve as Governor-General over the Gamilon Empire and Gamilon, Princess."

"You said you have a little plan for Gamilon," said Invidia. "What is that plan?"

"It involves two pieces of technology now being tested by us," said Skaldart with an evil grin. "We intend to deploy them…tomorrow…"

"Excellent!" laughed Invidia. "Menklen!" said Invidia as the dark-haired green Cometine general bowed. "I charge you with a task!"

"Yes, Princess?" he said.

"Get between Iscandar and the Earth Task Force," Invidia ordered. "Then use your heavy battleships to destroy the Star Force!"

"I shall do so…with…_pleasure_," laughed Menklen as he faded out.

Some time later, on the _Argo_, Nova looked at Derek, put her hands on her hips, and said, "You're doing _what_?"

"Leading the Tigers and Trojans into combat from my Super Star," he replied.

"I thought we discussed this before, and that we agreed this was _not_ a good idea!" said Nova with angry and downcast eyes before a shocked bridge crew. "I thought you said you were going to try to avoid this…"

"Nova, I should be back aboard the ship in an hour or two," he replied as he put a supportive hand under her chin. She was looking at him with tear-filled eyes. "I'll come back safely. I promise. I order you to help Sandor command the ship while I'm gone. This'll be over soon."

"It had _better_ be…you said the same thing when you flew off the _Nagato_ with your brother," snapped Nova as she hugged Derek fiercely. Then, Nova said, "We've been over this before; I don't want to have to show our children _pictures_ of their father because he got killed in some mission in his fighter! I want you there to help raise our children, damnit!" Then, they kissed quickly before she stepped back, saluted, and said, "Returning to my post. Come back soon…sir."

"I will," he said. Sandor turned to yell "Wildstar!" as Derek turned and ran off the bridge.

"Too late to stop him," said Sandor as he looked at Nova.

"Steve, would you like to try?" said Nova.

"It might be a good idea," said Sandor. "But….he is in command. He gave us his orders," sighed Sandor.

Soon, a pensive Wildstar was back in space in the cockpit of his Super Star fighter, nodding at the bridge as he manuevered his plane over the weather deck while he flew off to lead the Tigers and the Trojans into combat.

"Ah heahd you and Nova had a little discussion on board ship," said Hardy.

"I don't want to discuss it, Hardy," said Derek. "Our job is getting those guys off Iscandar. We have one chance to do it, and we're going in fast."

"Just launched from the _Arizona_, suh," said Cory Conroy in his heavy accent from not far away as he led the Sun Tigers out of his ship.

"Reporting in, Fighter Captain," said Flash Contrail from his cockpit with the Sun Tigers.

"First squadron of Trojans reporting in," said Deke Wakefield from his cockpit, as, behind him, Sasha gave him a thumbs-up from her place as radar intercept officer in the _Diamond Girl_.

"Second squadron checking in," said Brew from his cockpit.

"Second bloody Tiger Squadron reportin' in, mate," said Hartcliffe as he flew into combat with Eric Clapton's _Layla_ playing very loudly in his headset.

Several other squadron commanders reported in from the Green Hornets and the other Groups from the _Shiryu_ and the _Princess Astra_ as Wildstar nodded. Then, he barked, "All planes, begin re-entry into Iscandar's atmosphere and power dive! Our first target is New Fiji Island base! GO!"

The planes blasted down in an imposing group as Wildstar led them into combat.

It took only a few minutes, but, soon, they were in the sky over Iscandar, roaring down as New Fiji Island grew bigger in their cockpit windows.

Wildstar then ordered, "Sun Tigers, Green Hornets, Black Aces, Blue Diamonds! You begin liberating the southern part of the island under Conroy's command! The rest of us will work on the northern part of the island. Find Black Nebulans…fire at will! GO!"

The two groups of planes flew in together, and then split up. One hundred and thirty-four planes followed Conroy; the other one hundred and twenty-four birds followed Wildstar.

Derek smiled grimly to himself as he swooped in over the runway at the edge of the fighter base and began to plaster a knot of Black Nebulan tripod tanks with missiles. Soon, there were no longer any tripod tanks guarding the runway. Derek gritted his teeth and then went down to treetop level, strafing enemy troops as he roared in. There were many screams, and much scattering of blood, brain matter, plastiflesh, and various cyborg parts as Wildstar and Hardy began to strafe enemy troops and enemy planes that were still on the ground.

_You thought you guys could take Iscandar?_ Derek thought. _Now, it's payback time, you crappy machines!_

A few minutes later on Iscandar, a General Mekein of the Black Nebulan forces was now grandly calling himself "The Occupation Commander of Iscandar." As of yet, he was oblivious to the fact that Commodore Wildstar was now in the process of breaking his occupation to pieces.

The bald Black Nebulan grinned as he sat at what had been Commodore Priceman's desk at the fighter base. He finished working on Priceman's computer and was delighted at the notice he had made.

"The first order of the Occupation," he said proudly to an underling as he ran off several copies of Proclamation Number One. "Advar, see to it that two hundred copies are made of this handbill. I want it posted in the city post-haste!"

"Yessir!" said Advar. "What of the latest round of slaves we captured?"

"Separate the women and children from the men, and make certain some of the children are separated from their mothers by force so as to serve as examples. Some of the children shall get the whip. You can kill a few to terrorize the others," said Mekein as he opened some of Priceman's wine and began to drink it from a souvenier Black Tigers mug. "Ship the men off to Work Planet Twelve before the day is out. I want some of them experimented on with the hyperon beams to see if this plan of Skaldart's to kill them and then put our minds in their bodies shall work. If it does, maybe we should negotiate with Invidia for Earth. Give some of the women to Invidia as slaves for her draft; send the most attractive ones to the Joy Units where they will earn their living comforting our men…"

Advar nodded eagerly. "May I have first pick?"

"Yes, except for three of them once we complete the occupation," said Mekein as he looked at a picture on Priceman's desk. "Her Highness, of course, goes back to Invidia. I'm having some trouble deciding whether I want the golden-blond one or the honey-blond one in my bed after we slaughter their husbands in front of them. Maybe both. Wouldn't these two beside the Queen look cute chained up?" said Mekein as he smiled.

The picture he turned towards Advar was a picture of Queen Starsha, flanked by Sasha, and by Nova.

The Black Nebulans laughed until another aide ran into the room.

"Sirs!" he said. "Large wave of enemy planes spotted in the ionosphere of Iscandar! They're heading right for this station! I…"

Then, a moment later, there was an explosion outside.

"They're here!" yelled the aide.

"Damned nuisance," said Mekein. "All right, let us resist! Standard measures!"

"Remember!" snapped Cory Conroy as he and the Sun Tigers broke off from the main body of the fighters over Iscandar and dived towards the base. "We want Black Nebulans dead! We are to only damage our own equipment if it is being used against us!"

"Roger that," said Flash Contrail from his plane.

They dropped down towards the runways, and began to strafe any Black Nebulans they saw running for their planes. They weren't picky. They went after the planes, too, and they also had a great time shooting down any Cometines they saw working with the blue-grey cyborgs.

The planes then began to climb again as a few enemy troop carrier ships were spotted.

They went after them with gusto.

Conroy whooped as his flight blew two apart in a minute.

So far, the battle was going well…_very_ well.

Up in the sky, in the meantime, Commodore Derek Wildstar was still flying along, personally leading the Black Tigers and the Trojans in to attack from the cockpit of his Super Star fighter.

Deke Wakefield laughed as he blew apart several beached Black Nebulan landing ships.

A few Black Nebulan pilots launched from one of the runways, but Sasha tapped Deke on the shoulder and said, "They're heading to port, Deekee!"

"Roger that," snapped Deke. "Heading off for Main Street. Looks like they're trying to run for it!"

"Will they succeed?" said Sasha.

"Not if I can help it!" replied Deke as he shot missiles into three Black Nebulan fighters. A few fired back at him, but he took them out.

Brew flew up, with Bangs beside him and said, "My opinion is, these guys suck!"

"Agreed!" snapped Deke. "There's our old headquarters!" said Deke. "Look at all of those Black Nebulans running outside!"

"I don't think they like the sight of us!" sang Bangs over her mike.

"You know what to do, guys!" snapped Deke.

"SPINDLETOP TIME!" yelled Brew. "Let's strafe those idiots!"

Brew was the first one to begin strafing the group of stunned Black Nebulans. Deke followed, and Bangs was the last one to fire.

Deke blew Advar in half. Bangs shot off a shocked General Mekein's head as Brew shot the rest of him into pieces of mechanical junk and red jelly.

Two minutes later, there were no Black Nebulans left outside the old EDF Base Headquarters.

"How's the situation?" said Wildstar in Wakefield's headset.

"We're taking out some vehicles near the north end of the runway, sir!" said Wakefield.

"Give it thirty more seconds, then we'll let Conroy mop up! Prepare to break off and meet me; we're going to Mother Town!"

"Yessir!" said Hardy.

Soon, a minute later, Wildstar's group broke off, noticing that the Black Nebulan presence on New Fiji Island was breaking as, not far away, some landing boats from the _Shiryu_ were beginning to land and disgorge Space Marines to spread out and take back the base and city in a hand-to-hand fight.

Wildstar nodded as his group flew over the sacred beach, heading north to free Mother Town next….

On Iscandar, at least, the Black Nebulan occupation was finally beginning to break…

**II. THE FOG OF WAR…**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Orbiting Iscandar**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1602 Hours Earth Space-Time **

Lt. Cmdr. Nova Wildstar had calmed down somewhat, thinking_, I guess this is war, and Derek feels he has to lead his pilots in a crucial operation…but I wish he would have listened and commanded this operation from the bridge, where he belongs! I think he'll be okay, but why do I have the feeling that he's going to pay for this somehow? Not that I'd do it, but more like Karma will pay him back for this? Karma? Destiny? _

Nova sighed and sat at her radar holding a microphone on a coiled cord. The mike connected to a jack on her board that patched through to Communications. For the moment, since Sandor was working on some battle damage to one of the auxilary engines that the ship had taken a few minutes ago thanks to some Black Nebulan planes, she was in command of the _Argo_ as Officer of the Deck, and since she had on a headset that patched right through to Derek's plane through another cord, she was his representative as commanding officer of the Task Force.

_War. It can always be a confusing situation_, Nova thought. _I was just reading this book from Captain Avatar's old library in our cabin the other day; a book on the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Ironic that I'm on the same bridge that Admiral Takeo Kurita commanded from; or was the old Yamato's flag bridge now our Second Bridge? I can never remember those rebuild plans between the old ship and our ship._

As she watched her radar and conditions around her, part of Nova's mind drifted back two hundred and sixty-three years, back to October 1944, back to what she had read about the battle at sea in a historical novel that Derek had read over and over again, highlighted in several places, and had finally gotten her to read….back in the past, the situation was similar to what was going on now in this wide-ranging battle…

**A Selection From: _The Lost Battleship Yamato: A Retrospective_, A Novel by Warren Hirsch, © 2189, Hyperion Press**. **Web and Print Publishers, Ltd.**

**_October 25, 1944_**

**_Imperial Navy Battleship Yamato_**

**_Vicinity of the Phillipine Islands_**

**_0658 Hours, Local Time…._**

"_Teki da_!" ("It's the Enemy"!) screamed a lookout on the _Yamato's_ bridge.

From his command seat on the _Yamato's_ bridge, Admiral Kurita, commander of the Task Force, nodded with a samurai's grunt as he watched a number of dots converging on his ship. It was a few brave pilots from Taffy Three, a nearby American task group consisting of a few light carriers, a few destroyers, a few destroyer escorts. Through a number of miscalculations and historical accidents, this small task group was all that was between Kurita's fleet and an American landing force in Leyte Gulf at the moment; a few ships literally "In Harm's Way" against an overwhelming but somewhat confused Japanese fleet.

"General Attack!" snapped Kurita. "Every ship for itself! No delay!"

As the bugler nodded and got onto the Intership PA to blow the proper signals, a voice came from the aft part of the bridge. "We should coordinate this attack!" barked back Kurita's deputy, Admiral Ugaki. "I want those _gaijin_ wiped out like the cockroaches they are!"

"Those are brave men, coming like that, Ugaki-_kun_," said Kurita as he watched the few American planes coming on like juggernauts through the black clouds of flak his fleet was putting up. "I have the impression we are fighting a foe who is tougher than we think. We need to show him respect. We have little air cover. We have to open the main guns now and fire."

Soon, the _Yamato's_ guns fired. They fired incendiary rounds called _sen-shiki-dan—_nasty bomblets inside the ship's 46-centimeter shells meant to bring down planes.

They were only partly successful. Some of the planes from the smallish American "jeep" carrier _Gambier__ Bay_ gallantly raced down towards the _Yamato_ and her task force.

Some pilots had torpedoes. Others had bombs. Some just strafed the ships as they passed. A few observers on _Yamato's_ open bridge were decapitated by a combination of bullets and shrapnel as the Americans braved the super-battleship's bullets to perform their assigned tasks.

One pilot, an American named Lt. (j.g.) Frederick Rosstowski, is said to have thrown a Coke bottle at the _Yamato's_ bridge when he ran out of bullets. He is said to have survived, and it is thought that his descendants have lived on to our time in the twenty-second century…

The bleeping of the radar jerked Nova's mind out of 1944 and back into 2207 as she looked at her screen.

"Enemy force approaching!" cried Nova. "They just warped in! Domon! Ship identification-Cometine! Four space battleships and twelve space destroyers! Range, eight megameters off port bow! They're trying to get between us and Iscandar!"

One of the enemy ships fired its shock cannon at an EDF patrol cruiser just as Nova cried those words. It hit and destroyed the patrol cruiser _Platte_ just as Nova took stock of the situation and barked, "All ships, change course seventy degrees starboard! Open all guns at enemy force and prepare to fire!"

Kitano began to turn with a nod at Nova's order as Nova realized the rest of the fleet was following her orders.

On the enemy flagship, the Cometine space battleship _Destrava_, General Menklen sat grinning as an officer reported to him. "General! Squadron attack commenced! The _Argo_ has taken damage!"

"Wonderful," said Menklen. "Viscont Tre'ger.." he purred.

A minor R'Khell _R'Jkharraz _in red and black who wore something that looked like a white _khaffiyeh_ headscarf on his head bowed to Menklen and said. "Star Force is scattered. The dread Commodore Wildstar is off flying a mission, and his executive officer repairs damage."

"Who commands the _Argo_ then?" said Menklen.

"A mere girl, I sense…" chuckled Tre'ger after he closed his eyes and scanned the _Argo_ with his powers.. "I am not an adept, and they are too far away for me to attack psychically so I can strangle the enemy commander. She is Wildstar's little concubine. She has no experience to speak of that I am aware of, and…"

"Enemy fleet forning main battle line!" barked a radar officer. "They may be more effective than we thought!"

"Main shock cannons _ready_!" yelled a bearded Cometine officer on the _Destrava's_ bridge.

"All right, young lady concubine," sneered Menklen. "Let's see how long we can play this out. It might be fun tormenting you before we kill you along with your ship. And won't your paramour be disappointed?" Menklen laughed like a maniac at that.

Menklen didn't know Nova very well, of course…

_They're moving fast_, thought Nova as she watched the enemy fleet herself. _But I think I've got the drop on you, enemy commander. Don't underestimate me….I'm here to defend innocent lives; not to play your cruel games!_ Then, Nova got a hard look in her eyes that Derek would have been very proud of if he had been there to see it.

A second later, Domon and Nishina were already computing a firing solution as they said, "Main guns, train to forty-five degrees port; elevation plus twelve degrees!"

Nova then heard Homer yelling, "Ma'am, on the _Arizona_, Venture reports locked on! Seeks permission to fire!"

"Go for it!" snapped Nova as sweat ran down her back while three beams of energy slammed into the _Argo's_ port side. At that, the _Arizona_ fired first, bringing down an enemy destroyer as the _Argo_ worked at training her main guns as the turret crews worked hard. Two more enemy destroyers fired at both ships while two lone green and orange Gamilon destroyers joined the EDF and Iscandarian battle line, aiding their allies as quickly as possible.

"Minor damage taken!" yelled a voice on the PA.

"Hold course, Kitano! Domon, how long?" snapped Nova.

"Five more seconds!"

"Enemy destroyer overhead!" yelled Eager.

"Mister Nishina! _Smokestack missiles_!" snapped Nova.

"Aye!" he barked back from Artillery.

"Domon, where are those main guns?" cried Nova.

"Ma'am, the crews are doing the best that they _can_!" retorted Domon.

The _Argo's_ smokestack missiles went off and got the Cometine destroyer just as she was diving to try to both shoot up and ram the _Argo_.

"Main guns ready!" said Domon. At the same time, Homer yelled, "Venture reports the Fleet is ready!"

"We've crossed their "T"!" snapped Nova. "FIRE!"

The _Argo_ fired her guns to port, followed by the _Arizona_, the _Princess Astra_, and the _Shiryu_ and the smaller vessels. Most of the small Cometine fleet perished in their first desperate attempt to stop the task force.

One Cometine battleship fired its shock cannon vortex beams right at the _Argo_ as it got on her six in a crazed turn that tore bulkheads and damaged systems in the ship; which was almost suicidal in its determination to get the mighty Earth space battleship, its guns blasting apart the EDF destroyers _Burke_ and _Adley_ as they tried to ram the enemy ship in this mad, close-quarters battle.

Over Iscandar, Derek looked up as some almost-dissipated shock cannon beams bored into the atmosphere and hit the far-off ocean like ghosts.

"There's somethin' nasty goin' on up theah, Wildstah!" said Hardy.

"Damnit, they're jumping Nova and Venture!" snapped Derek. "Nova!" he snapped on the frequency. "What the _frack_ is going on up there?"

"Cometine bandits!" said Nova, who sounded very out of breath. "Sandor's still down below in the auxilary engine room; port side. We have it shut down-power's reduced! I counterattacked with the fleet; took out two-thirds of the enemy fleet, and…"

"..and what?"

"Enemy Cometine battlewagon is on our stern! It's trying to use those vortex shock gun things on us!"

"I'm coming back up there!" snapped Derek. "You need our help! Tigers…regroup and…"

Derek then heard the sound of the _Argo's_ main guns going off from inside the ship over the circuit. His heart went sick when he heard static, and then cheering….

On the _Destrava_, which had taken damage, Menklen sat there with his mouth open on a smoking bridge as most of his fleet was turned to space trash, and his own crew tried to begin repairing battle damage caused by the _Argo_ herself. Nova was much smaller in person than the 6' 9" tall Cometine general, but the young woman, he had found, had teeth, claws, and 46 centimeter main guns.

"We have just four ships left!" said his radar officer. "Our flagship, one battleship with heavy damage, two destroyers!"

"Recommend we ram them!" said Tre'ger, who stood shaking his fist.

"Arishna has abandoned us!" muttered Menklen. "I lost my first battle."

"Their guns are training on us!" yelled Menklen's radar officer as the _Argo's_ guns locked dead onto his ship.

"Warp us out of here!" yelled Menklen. "_Maximum power_!"

Derek Wildstar was only hearing static for the moment as he flew along and yelled, "Nova! NOVA!"

_I killed her by leaving the ship_, he thought. _Her and our children…this is all my fault!_

On the _Argo_, Nova smiled when Domon said, "Ready to fire, ma'am," with a crazy grin.

"You know what to do," said Nova as she looked at her screen and then pounded the board in frustration. "FUDGE!" she cried. "UH…" she added. "These guys just warped out! Homer, get me back on the horn with Derek! Darn static…"

"Aye, aye, ma'am…" he said.

Sandor came on the bridge and said, "Nova, are you all right?"

"Tired…we got most of them-the rest ran; probably a bunch of dishonorable cowards. If I were in their shoes, I would have rammed and sent Marines to board," she said as she caught her breath.

"We have an uplink with the Commodore's plane!"

Nova tapped her mike and said, "Derek!"

"Nova!" he yelled back in his cockpit. "Are you all right?" He had his breath taken away for a moment as he heard her voice again. _Thank You, God_, he thought. He breathed again when Nova said, "Yes…we're done, sir! Cometine battleship destroyed-enemy fleet scattering and warping out. Sandor's back on the bridge, too! I brought down twelve out of sixteen ships…was that okay?"

"It sure was," said Derek as tears of gratitude ran down his cheeks. "Tell Sandor to take command; good job in a lousy situation, Nova."

"Thanks," gasped Nova as she gave Sandor the microphone and headset and the conn. Derek then said, "Steve?"

"We're fine, but your Lieutenant Commander is sweating buckets and her pulse rate is way out there," said Sandor as he felt the pulse on Nova's neck against her protests. "Relieve her?"

"Nova, before you take off that headset, _great job_! You're relieved! I should be back on the ship in thirty minutes or less. Go take a nap, Mrs. Wildstar," said Derek, momentarily a worried husband rather than a commander.

"You're worrying about _me_?" said Nova. "I'm worrying about _you_, Cowboy!"

"Go to sleep, Peppermint. I'll wake you up," said Derek.

"Stop calling me that," said Nova as an Ensign took her post. She stood up, stretched, and looked lost. Sandor turned around and said, "Nova, you've been relieved. Get off this bridge and catch some sleep."

"I can do another watch," she said defiantly. "As long as _he's_ out there, I'm on duty. I'll crash when he's back on this ship."

Sandor reluctantly stood. "Nova. You've been like a little sister to me; the kid sister I never had. You have a crazy man out there who loves you to death and he told me that it rips his heart out every time he has to get into that cockpit and fly and leave his pregnant wife on this ship "biting her nails and cursing me out in her head" as I quote. But, you know we're not in a good situation. You've barely slept in two days. You're over seven months pregnant. You pulled off a new one today. You must be the first pregnant woman in the history of the Fleet to have won a Navy Cross conning a ship in combat in your delicate condition."

Nova nodded dully. "Thanks."

Sandor then said to her in a low voice as he put his friendly cyborg hands on her shoulders. "Now, please go up there and get some rest before you pass out and we have to carry you off this bridge. When I get a minute, I'll send some orderly up there with food for you. You need it. You look as white as a sheet. Get up there and get out of that uniform, get a shower, and get into a robe before I carry you up there and do it myself with you punching my lights out."

"You wouldn't," said Nova.

"Nova, who do you think carried you out of the Cosmo-DNA working compartment after you went unconscious on us and we couldn't find your pulse? Derek was just holding your body and going psychotic…."

"Point taken, Steve…" she muttered. "I stand relieved." She saluted and then yawned. IQ-9 came over and helped her walk off the bridge.

Yamazaki shook his head sadly as they left. "That poor kid's really pushing herself."

"Think she'd make a good Captain?" said Nishina. "That quick thinking saved our asses."

"She already is, actually," said Sandor. "But it's not what she wants out of life. She wants to be a doctor and a mother in that order. God bless that girl. She will be both soon if we survive this war."

"If," said Homer. He looked really worried.

"What's wrong?" said Sandor as he came over.

"Communications dispatch I got on the wire," Homer said. "The R'Khells showed up near Earth; minor bombing raid near San Diego."

Sandor just nodded and wnt "hmmmm…I know what you mean…"

"What is it?" said Domon. "What does San Diego have to do with this?"

"His fiancee', Wendy Singleton, is on TDY there at SouthCal Command Heaquarters."

"And I can't _stand_ it!" sobbed Homer as he held his head and cried.

"It's going to be all right, son," said Yamazaki as he got up, went over to Homer's post and put a comforting arm around his shoulder. "Things like that have a way of working out."

"I'm depressed as hell this cruise," said Eager.

"I think that goes for all of us," said Sandor.

**III. SURVIVAL…**

**Derek Wildstar's Super Star Fighter**

**Over Iscandar**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1638 Hours Earth Space-Time **

Wildstar's planes met some stubborn resistance over the sea near Mother Town.

A few Black Nebulans and a knot of Cometine planes and boats were there to oppose them as they swooped in over the embattled city.

Wildstar could see the towers of Mother Town with streams of smoke rising up in the distance.

_C'mon_, he thought as he flew his plane hard and jinked hard to evade some missiles fired ftrom a Scorpion boat. _Just a few more of them! Let's just shoot down these enemy jokers so we can give the next set of Marines a clear landing zone. Then I wanna get home. Nova's probably having kittens right about now! _

As if in answer to his thoughts, Nova's somewhat crackly voice came over his headset. "Derek! Are you _all right_ out there? _Over!_"

_Maybe she's a little psychic_, he smiled to himself as he answered back, "Are you blocking Fleet Communications just to call me?" he said as he got a bead on the Scorpion boat and shot at it. "OVER!"

"No, I'm up in our cabin resting with a headset on." Nova had the privacy cover up; from their quarters, she could look down on Iscandar and could actually just make out little flashes of light coming from the continents every now and then; the lights of the distant battle. I can access things from up here, though. I'm using the sideband frequency we always used when we flew together!" said Nova through the static and the slight whine. "I'm in just in my robe right now…took a shower a minute ago…"

"Okay! Are you mad at me?"

"Mostly no," she said with a slight smile. "I think you can fix the rest if you treat me very nicely when you come home," she purred impishly as she closed up a bottle of nail polish.

"Good. I'll be back soon. Keep dinner waiting, or at least some tea…I…CRAP!"

"DEREK!" cried Nova from her bed with her headset on.

She heard blasting and slamming noises and chewed her nails with anxiety. _Why isn't he reporting?_ Nova thought as she clenched the blanket on the bunk with her fingers and toes in frustration. Nova hoped she didn't wreck her recent handiwork. She had been polishing her toenails with clear polish right before she got the implusive urge to tap in on Derek. Using her woman's intuition, she had then plugged in to make sure he was all right. _Is he fighting?_ _Or did he..?_

In combat, Wildstar saw a Tiger near him shot down in a ball of flame. He looked back. The culprit was a Scorpion boat.

Derek did a flip to get the enemy boat off his six, and he did a frontal attack as he multiplexed up another frequency. "Hardy! We've got a knot of crap here!" he barked, knowing that Nova was hearing him. "Get some boys over here to seven klicks off the beach of the Great Continent. I'm not far from the cove where Mother Town is!"

"Gotcha!" he said.

Derek fired a missile. The Scorpion was hit, and it fired a final burst into Derek's left wing a moment later.

"CRAP!" yelled Derek. "Damnit!" he yelled as he saw lights going off all over the place on his dashboard. "The left ram's been hit!"

"DEREK!" cried Nova as she thought, _I distracted him, it's all my fault, it's all my fault! How could you have so stupid, woman! Calling him up to chatter like a housewife when he's in combat! If he dies because of this, I'm shooting myself!_

"Hardy, Nova! Hardy, you and Wakefield take over. This bird's damaged! I think I can make it back to base…barely…disengaging from the battle now!"

Wildstar pulled the plane's nose up hard as he pulled out and began to throttle down for a moment. His engine sounded very sick, and the plane was vibrating like crazy. He was unhurt himself, but his Super Star was trailing smoke. He looked back. "Damnit, the fire's not going out!"

Derek flipped the channel back to just Nova again. "Nova! I'm five klicks…six klicks…away from the battle! Coordinates! RP-45 by JAZ 242! Middle of the block! Keeping my helmet transponder on!"

"What are you doing?" cried Nova.

"Punching out. This thing is toast!"

Nova heard loud blasting noises and then static as Derek pulled his ejection handle and the ejection seat blasted him up out of his Super Star at maybe 4,000 meters altitude. "Derek!" she screamed. "Derek!"

Then, closing her eyes, she heard a splash and vaguely made out an explosion. Then, Derek came on line and said, over the wound of whistling wind, "Well, that's the end of that bit of the taxpayers' money…oh well…"

"You're alive!" she cried.

"Yeah, but banged up a little," said Derek as he balanced on the survival chute that was part of the ejection seat's survival gear. He moved his hips, and the part of his harness that held a life vest and survival supplies tore away from the rest of the seat cushion after he undid a pull cord. He reached down and got rid of his flight boots, knowing he'd be in the water soon. It would be easier to just swim barefoot. "Well, at least we know the water's warm on Iscandar," he said. "Just pray that the enemy doesn't show up and start strafing at my head while I'm in the drink…"

"I'm coming for you!" said Nova with a new urgency as she got up and tore off her robe. Naked, she dug in her locker for the upper half of her wetsuit and her helmet. She slid into her yellow wetsuit, ignoring the bottoms (she liked it better bare-legged, especially in very warm water) as she strapped the single wide strap over her crotch to hold down the jacket and for some very minimal covering over her lower pregnant tummy and crotch area…although, in her state of anxious desperation right now, she would have swam in the nude to rescue him if she had to and had no water gear around.

Nova added to herself, _Of course, if I wasn't pregnant, I would have been in that plane with him right now…and we'd both be in the water now…funny…_

Nova pulled on a helmet, scribbled down his coordinates on a waterproof diving notepad and zipped up her wetsuit jacket. She said, "I'm coming for you with Dawn in a medical boat! If we have to, we'll rescue other pilots! Hang tight! I'll be there soon!"

"This is crazy, with all respect, ma'am, you are so _melodramatic_ about the Skipper!" said Dawn as she flew off in a Medical Boat with Nova a few minutes later.

"Can you blame me for being protective?" said Nova. "We _are_ talking about my husband and the father of my children," she said. "I want him around for the next seventy years! If 'in sickness and health' means I have to pick him up in a water drop, I will pick him up. I know he has to fly at times…but I want _him safe_! He picked me up off Diamond Island like that once in one of those old obsolete Disk Helicopters. It's time I paid him back for the favor."

Nova was in the pilot's seat and was actually flying the boat, while Dawn was in the co-pilot's place. Dawn also had on a wetsuit like Nova's; she had remembered to bring her swim fins, which were off to the side at the moment as she flew; Nova had not brought her fins at all.

Dawn was slightly amused that, literally, a barefoot and pregnant woman was in command of this pickup. Dawn didn't know if she would have that sort of hysterical spunk if she wasn't expecting. _Must be the hormones?_ Dawn thought. Dawn also remembered that Nova had had quite the time getting clearance from Sandor to fly this mission.

"I hope we don't get attacked, Nova…"

"I don't want him in that water long in case they strafe him or something. It's dangerous!" said Nova.

"We're taking the same risk," retorted Dawn. Nova looked at her hip. Dawn had not brought an Astro-Automatic; Nova had.

"You should have brought something," said Nova. "Funny that only one of us is armed if you're so concerned about the enemy."

Dawn shook her helmeted head, not sure what to say about that one. Re-entry was fairly easy, and it was easy to follow Wildstar's built-in helmet transponder…a new device, it gave out a small "ping" that Nova tracked on a large multifunction screen surmounted by two Matsumoto Dials on a readout between the pilot's and co-pilot's seats. "We're not far, ma'am," said Dawn.

"Should be four minutes to the site," said Nova. She pushed a few buttons and then she gave control of the boat to Dawn while she went slightly aft to check the drop hatch and the Jacob's Ladder winch behind the pilot and co-pilot's places. "When I give the word, when we're a few meters over him, prepare to hover and cut the engines somewhat. We don't want to give him too much blast wash."

Dawn nodded as she worked the controls. "Two minutes to pickup point…"

Nova tapped her helmet. "Derek? Are you reading us? Over!"

"Read you loud and clear," he said as he kicked away in the water, treading water even though he had his floatation cushion on.

"Where's the battle?"

"Far off to the north, Nova. I can barely see it now…we should be safe if you and Dawn are fast."

"Don't worry," laughed Nova. "We're fast," she said with a playful wink.

"Why are you in command?" said Derek.

"My mom always said, you want something done right, do it yourself."

"Nova, I thought you didn't like your mother that much…," said Derek.

"I'm starting to learn she was right about some things. Some things. Not many things…" said Nova.

"Sixty seconds to pickup point!" cried Dawn.

"Derek, did you spray your shark repellent in the water?" asked Nova.

"Yes I did, _Mom_," he said with an embarrassed laugh. Dawn rolled up her eyes at that one, thinking_, If I had a bag of sugar around, I'd use Deke's old habit and plunk it down in front of these two. They can induce diabetes…of course, people used to do the same…with us…I hope Jeff is all right in this stupid battle!_

Derek looked around. No sign of them yet, even though the sky was blue and the water was fine. "Hey, Nova!" he teased. "Did you bring the volleyball? We can play space water polo. I'll spot you three points!" Derek had to admit, his wife was doing a good job keeping up his spirits as he awaited rescue.

"We can do that after the fighting is over, _silly_," laughed Nova. "You are such a goof sometimes, Derek!" _I don't believe it, he's making me laugh, _Nova thought. _I'm mad at him… I think? It's hard to contemplate dunking your husband underwater when he is making you laugh!_

"Thirty seconds!" yelled Dawn.

Nova nodded. She worked a control to lower the winch down to deck level. She then hooked her toes over the padded trapeze bar at the bottom of the winch and locked herself on with one of the safety harnesses. It had a D-ring that clipped right to a similar one in the waistband of her elastic wetsuit, which still fit her baby bulge nicely. "When we're over the site, lower me down carefully…"

"Aye, aye, ma'am," said Dawn.

A few seconds later, Derek waved in the water as he saw the boat. It hovered down for him with a roaring sound that grew louder by the second. The jet wash began to make wavelets in the water.

Dawn manuevered the boat down to ten meters' altitude, almost over them. Derek then heard Nova's voice saying, "Swim over my way!"

Derek nodded and began swimming. Maybe twelve meters' later, he was in the right spot, bracing against the strong jet wash as Nova came down on the rescue winch, one hand clinging to the line, and her toes hooked over the bar. She was a welcome sight to Derek as he scanned the sky.

Nova waved as the winch dropped her slowly waist-deep in the water. Held on by her harness, she let go and swam over a kick or two to him. She gave him a hug and said, "Now let's get on that bar. Do you have your flight boots off?"

"Yeah, they were weighing me down and the water's warm," said Derek as he held onto Nova in his wet uniform. She used a slender bare leg to manuever him onto the bar as she clipped the other harness D-ring to his belt. "Got you," she said.

"Thanks a lot," he replied.

"Pull us up, Dawn!" ordered Nova.

The winch pulled them back into the hull of the boat a moment later. Derek felt somewhat relieved to have a deck under his feet again instead of water as Nova pulled his helmet off, stripped him of his wet shirt, and began to rub him dry with a towel while Dawn flew on from her co-pilot's seat. "We're going back to the…." Then, Dawn stopped as she spotted another blip on the screen. "Another pilot's in the water!" she cried.

"Huh?" said Derek as he leaned on the back of the chair and pulled his helmet back on from the use of his radio.

Nova's head shot up. "It's Sandor! He reports someone else shot down, maybe ten klicks north of us…"

"Who is it?" said Dawn as she suddenly jumped when she heard a familiar voice saying, "Hey! Mah Tiger's crap! Got a wing shot off! Need a pickup.._over_!"

"JEFF!" she cried. "Jeff, are you all right?" she said as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Dawn, is that you?"

"Yes, it is…"

"Where are you?"

"Medical Boat 21165," she said. "We had to use one of the smaller ones with the drop capsule. It's gonna be a little crowded in here, How did you get shot down?"

"Black Nebulans. Three of 'em at once! They got Advair and Nakajima!"

"Do we need to pick them up, too?" said Nova over the circuit.

"Mrs. Nova, what are _you_ doin' there?"

"We just picked up Derek," chuckled Nova as she dried Derek's shoulders with her towel while standing behind him.

"Hardy, what about those guys?" asked Wildstar as he talked into his lip mike; even bare-chested, he again on his helmet. He sat down in the pilot's seat and watched the controls while Dawn flew on and Nova ran about getting things ready and putting away other things.

"We don't need to pick them up," Hardy sighed. "Dead. And Hartcliffe made some idiotic mistake and he didn't come to Advair's aid fast enough…told me he was trying to increase his kill count. What's _with_ that guy lately? He's a total jackass!"

"Let me get this straight," said a rather angry Wildstar. "He failed to help another Tiger and let him _die_?"

"Afraid so."

"Jeff, there is no "I" in the word TEAM," said Nova. "The Star Force is a _group!_ You know that! We _never_ leave one of our own in a jam without help. Even when you are mad at him!" said Nova as she pulled a bit of Derek's hair. "That's rule number one!"

Dawn was impressed. She had heard about and seen the Star Force's legendary group dynamic before, but now, she was seeing it in action. _My God, they're all like a big extended family_, she thought.

"We're doing a full inquiry on Mister Hartcliffe once this battle is over with," snapped Derek. "Nova, that makes me _sick_. Doesn't even give a rat's butt for his own wife, either?"

Nova shook her head. "No. And it's getting worse. I'm feeling _very_ sorry for Angie right now," said Nova mournfully as she leaned against the back of Dawn's seat.

"Not you," said Derek as he reached over and squeezed her hand. "You are going to be the most protected mother-to-be in the Fleet now. Now granted, I'm requisitioning a new Command Super Star from the _Shiryu _when we get back…"

Nova turned her helmeted head and glared at him. _I know he has to,_ she thought. _But, so soon?_

_"You!" _said Nova as she pulled his hair again.

"OUCH!" he said. "You're a sadist!"

Nova giggled and said, "I hope that I'm better than being with the enemy?"

"I have to think about that one," said Derek thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry, but I can't stand your jumping in that plane when you have forty-eight pilots on your ship," said Nova. "Still, we're a group. Wherever you go, I go…right?"

"My sentiments exactly, Nova," said Derek."That is, when you get the idea to stop ripping my hair out!"

"Don't be a baby, Derek," quipped Nova as she tried to hide her being upset with a witty comment like she sometimes did. Derek did the same thing, but Nova had her own little feminine twist to it that drove Derek crazy. "I've got two already. I don't need a third!"

Derek looked at her with sad eyes. "Okay," said Nova as she tousled his hair at the edges of his helmet. "I can't resist you when you get like this…"

Nova kissed him, and then turned away as tears of both sadness and frustration ran down her cheeks.

"Nova?" said Derek as he heard her trying to hold back sobs.

"I'm OK," she lied as she talked through her nose for a moment. Nova thought, _God,_ _I hope he can stay with us on the ship commanding the Task Force…Task Force 2.0, that is… as much as possible…I hope we don't have another situation where he has to fly with the Tigers soon! I know it's war, but…_

Derek then looked at her and the stricken, angry and upset look on her gentle face and said, "About that plane?"

"Yes?"

"I'll requisition it…but I don't think I'm going to be flying it all that much now…if we can avoid it in this war. I know we can't make an ironclad guarantee, this is war...but I'll do my best to be there for you! I want to be thereto hold your hand and comfort you when you go into labor…with our children!" he said as he looked at Nova with eyes that were brimming with his own tears as he gave her tummy a gentle pat. He knew he couldn't do so now, but part of him was just longing to open her wetsuit and caress her pregnant tummy right now in sheer affection. "Lieutenant Commander, thank you, _thank you_, for risking your life in a combat zone just to pick _me_ up!"

Nova smiled at that. "You're welcome, Derek," she said as she squeezed his hand back. "And also forgiven…" she said softly even though Derek noticed her hand was shaking slightly. "Tea for you back on the ship…along with a good shower…"

He nodded as Dawn got up and Nova took her place in the co-pilot's seat beside him. Derek himself then nodded as Nova gave him control of the boat. "Fly it to that point, Derek. You've flown like this before."

He nodded. "The altitude is supposed to be ten meters for a pick-up."

Nova said, "Yes..!" Then, she unsnapped her gun belt and handed her holstered sidearm and belt to Dawn. "Mrs. Hardy, put these on," said Nova. "That's an order."

"Sure," said Dawn reluctantly. She then reached for her swim fins but Nova said, "I wouldn't, Dawn. He won't be far from us. It's easier to hang on to the trapeze if you're barefoot."

Dawn was about to retort that maybe Nova needed the extra balance with her pregnant stomach and _she_ didn't, but she thought better of it.

She found her commanding officer Nova rather strange at times, and she felt really uneasy and even a bit jealous when she saw how she and Derek just communicated with their eyes and a couple of nods at times. Dawn could see they had the potent mixture of being dear friends, combat buddies, and joined-at-the-hip lovers, all at once. She could see that they had a loving yet slightly defiant "us against the world" kind of relationship. It drove her mad when she saw that she was watching a couple who would die for each other; without hesitation, even given the little argument she had sensed beforehand. _Sort of like Deke and I used to be back in high school before he turned weird…and maybe we would have become like that if I hadn't dumped him…_ _and he didn't end up with her_…she thought as an angry thought of Sasha ran through her mind. _I love Jeff dearly but I don't have that kind of unspoken rapport with him…yet…_

Dawn looked at the hatch as she ran over and put her feet on the bar. She couldn't look at them anymore even though they were being totally professional as they flew the boat and began to head down to where they saw Hardy, who was waving furiously for a pickup.

_Here we go_, thought Dawn as she undid the hatch and it whirred open. She gave Nova a thumbs-up as she was lowered down towards the water for Hardy,

**TEN MINUTES LATER…**

They made a safe landing back on the _Argo_. Nova couldn't help noticing in Sickbay as she and Doctor Sane examined Derek a few minutes later that Dawn and Tasha Cleveland were looking very quiet as they examined Hardy from a nearby bed with a scanner unit.

Nova looked over the scanning screen with Doctor Sane with some worry on her face as she and Sane palpated Derek's abdomen for any damage (he was now naked for the moment for his exam). "Does it hurt there?" asked Sane.

"No," said Derek.

"His spleen looks fine, Doctor," said Nova. "I don't think he needs to be profiled. I also checked him for rupture. Nothing indicated…"

"Did you have to squeeze so _darn hard_ when you made me cough, Nova?" said Derek.

"You be quiet," she said. She then whispered in his ear, "I'll kiss you and make you feel better later on if we have time…"

"Where?" he said with a nudge.

Nova blushed deeply and whispered, "I'm not mentioning where _here_, silly! At any rate, you have that salt on your back, and…"

"Okay, Nova, he's released. Get his clothes back on but see if he can take a shower ASAP. He has a few little nicks on him that we don't want that sea salt irritating," said Sane.

"Yessir," she said. "Just what I was thinking," Nova added.

Derek got his underwear and pants and a pair of shower flip-flops Nova had gotten him, but Nova took his shirt away from him. "No shirt for _you_! Not until I wash those nicks on your back and shoulders," she snapped.

"How do you propose to do that, Nurse?" he teased in a low voice as Sane went off to be with Dawn and Tasha as he popped the cork on his bottle of Spring Water.

"In the shower with you later on…_together_," she whispered. "I know you'll be a lot more fun to wash in the shower than that little Dellar."

"Silly girl," he said. "Okay, Peppermint Novelle!"

"Ohhh," said Nova. "Where are you pulling _that_ one from?"

"My head!"

"Is there _anything in_ there?" teased Nova as she tapped on his forehead.

Derek smiled at her in return. "Okay. I know your name is Nova and not Novelle."

"That's _better_," whispered Nova. Nova smiled back and then turned to let Derek dress while she followed Sane over to Hardy's bed.

Hardy was protesting as he said, "Dawn, Tasha, that is _not_ a good diagnosis! I can't have no concussion!"

"Scanners say you might have a little one," said Tasha as she stood there in her Medical minidress and white boots, looking smarter at the moment than either of her commanding nurses, who were still in wetsuits and bare feet (and still slightly wet!) "Doctor, I think we should profile him for twenty-four and hold him overnight."

"What?" said Hardy.

Sane chuckled as Nova swooped in like some strange pretty blond vulture with a cute but slightly goofy Audrey Hepburn face and she shone a penlight into his eyes. "Hmmm…Doctor! One pupil is just a tad bigger than the other. This does not look good." Dawn then felt a sudden surge of jealousy as Nova professionally ran her hands through Jeff's wet, shaggy mane of hair. "Lump on the left side. Jeff. How did you get _this_?"

"Dawn kicked me in bed last night," he said with a wink of the eye you could see under that mane of hair.

"I did _not_!" snapped Dawn.

Sane put some scanners near his head and began scanning. "Looks like you hit your head on the edge of your cockpit when you punched out. Did you black out when you left your plane?"

"I…"

"DID YOU?" screamed Sane.

"Yeah, I did…"

"Nova, profile him and hold him for observation for twenty-four hours," said Sane. "You and Cleveland do the paperwork to admit him now."

"We got a war to fight!" snapped Hardy.

"Hardy, the Tigers will live for twenty-four hours without you," said Wildstar as he came over, dressed except for his shirt. "I've got another good commanding officer to shuffle around to his spot."

"Not Hartcliffe?" said Nova.

"Hell no. Wakefield. He has command of the Trojans _and_ the Tigers for the next twenty-four hours. Where is he now?"

"Still out flying clean-up by Mother Town," sighed Hardy. "Most of the bad guys are finally defeated and the Marines have that and New Fiji Island pretty much secured again…"

Derek nodded and he walked to a phone and phoned the First Bridge. "Domon!" he barked, reporting in to the current Officer of the Deck.

"Yessir?" said Domon.

"Report up to our cabin at…uh…eighteen-thirty," said Wildstar. "Right after we pick up the planes. Bring Wakefield with you. How's the fleet situation?"

"Clear," said Domon. "The Gamilons have reported that the fleet attacking Gamilon seems to be _retreating_. Desslok has no idea what's going on, but…"

"I think we're good for the moment. How are the repairs going?"

"Sandor wants to work on the armor around the gun turrets, but he says it's getting tough with energy running out on the maintenance jet packs. We…"

"Land us on Iscandar again; near New Fiji Island. The situation was clear there when we got back to the ship, according to Hardy's report. Back to regular status again for the moment. For now, I think we've won this round."

"Me too," said Domon. "Good work, sir…"

"Thanks," said Wildstar as he put down the phone. "Nova, are you done with Hardy, yet?"

"Almost," she said as she got Jeff a set of pajamas. "You've got to cover that _up_," Nova said as she pirouetted around and glanced down at Hardy and winked as she threw a towel over his lap. "You might drive Dawn crazy on her next watch if you lounge around like that…."

"So how am I looking?" said Hardy as he looked at all three nurses.

"You have a concussion and scratches, Jeff," said Dawn with a wink. "Otherwise…no comment…_here_… I'll bring you some good reading material from our cabin. That'll keep you busy…"

"That's not what I wanted to keep me busy," said Hardy as he smiled at Dawn.

"Rain check on the rest," said Dawn primly. "Now, I need a decent uniform on. Later, guys!" she said as Nova walked away with an arm around her Derek's waist.

"_Later_," sang Nova with a wink.

_He__ didn't get a concussion punching out, you lucky little blond SOB_, thought Dawn. _And you get to take care of him all by yourself up in your cabin! Bleeeagh! I'm jealous!_

**IV. REGROUPING**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**On Planet Iscandar, Near New Fiji Island**

**Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1742 Hours Earth Space-Time **

The _Argo_ was back on a deceptively-peaceful looking Iscandar again, floating in the sea at anchor near the rest of Task Force 2.0 as Sandor and his men and women worked on repairing the armor plating out in the open on the warm decks.

"It'd be nice if you ignored the smoke still coming up from the island," said Diane Henson as she and Sandor worked together with a welding unit on top of the _Argo's_ main aft gun turret.

"This planet's suffered a lot in the past few hours," said Sandor. "We have a lot to think about until we get home…"

"Like children," said Diane as she stopped welding and looked right in Steve's dark eyes after pulling her safety goggles off.

"Children.." said Sandor in a flat voice.

"If we want them after we get married," said Diane in a matter-of-fact manner.

"After we get married?" he said. He raised his eyelids and said, "Funny. I haven't proposed to you yet…"

"Wham, bam," said Diane as she waved her hands around. "Oh, Steve, will you marry me someday?"

"This is _serious_," Sandor huffed.

"I'm awaiting your answer," said Diane.

"After we fix this weld," he said.

Diane turned on an acetylene torch and lowered her goggles. "Put down the wrench, Steve…"

"Yes to your proposal," he said.

"What?" said Diane with a smile.

Stephen Sandor cleared his throat. "I said…yes."

"To what?" said Diane.

"To your proposition! I will marry you!" he said as he laughed, got up, and picked the tall, strong young woman up off her booted feet with his strong cyborg arms.

"Steve!" cried Diane with joy as she hugged him back and almost dropped him off the top of the turret.

"I owe you a ring," he said.

"Do not; your word's good enough with me," said Diane.

"Oh, grow _up_!" he said with a laugh. "I owe you a ring, and I will make one!"

"Fine," said Diane.

"Ok, we'll get to that later," said Steve.

"Now, about children," said Diane.

Sandor's face dropped at that.

"That's if we ever want them," said Diane. "It is optional. However, they sort of have this social pressure These Days for married couples to have kids, and…"

"Okay?" said Steve.

"I know your predicament, and I'm not like Tricia," he said, referring to Steve's ex-wife. "If we want to consider this, we will probably have to adopt. Although Nova said there are other ways to handle this."

"You've been chatting with _Nova_ about this?" said Sandor.

"Yes, advance planning for _us_," said Diane. "Nova is a smart girl. I do not hold it against her any more that she kicked my butt in that ring five years ago."

"Hmmmm…I kind of like this," he said as he held her hands. "Okay. What are you considering?"

"We just started talking about it one day a few weeks ago. Funny that we're so tight now. I feel all weird about Derek, but I know our days together are _long over_. And so many people are talking about how many children they can have if and when we win this war."

"Okay, so what are the alternatives?" said Sandor. He felt shy on the one hand, but he knew Diane well enough now to know she could be very blunt and direct when she wanted to be. Although he loved her, part of him wondered why Wildstar had ever been attracted to this woman. Although he knew she had matured a great deal and had even begun to learn the rudiments of being romantic in an adult manner, in so many ways, she was Nova's polar opposite…

_Or is she?_ Steve thought. _Nova also has a little bit of the tomboy about her, too. And she's just as strong-willed as Diane is, although she uses her iron hand in the velvet glove approach to get what she wants. Diane just uses a crowbar!_

Diane stood there tapping her white-booted foot on the deck as she said, "Steve? Are you ready to discuss this? Before fixing this heat stress fracture with a tritanium rod makes me forget?"

"Okay, shoot," said Steve. "What is your theoretical framework?"

"Proof: we might want children, Proof: you were hurt in that accident and you are sterile. I am fertile. Approaches: One…use artificial insemination. Proven method if we want children. The donor's semen can also be put on ice for many years…if we want to hold off, that is…you know about the Allen-Kreitz protocol?"

"What's that? I don't remember that one…" said Sandor.

"The methodology, per Sane, is that we use stem cells and combine them with your genetic code to make artifical sperm that would be yours. Then, it goes into me in a little operation, and…bun comes out of the oven..._ding_!"

"Diane, you are not an E-Z-Bake Oven!"

"I might be," she said.

"You're horrid," said Sandor.

Diane cleared her throat as she lit the torch again and her dark red-brown hair stood out, making her look mildly insane as she played with it.

"Okay, let's get serious. If we _can_! The operation takes place in Sickbay or a hospital with a hand pressure unit…and…"

"Uh…yeah. What's option number two?" said Sandor.

"It is different than Option One. Experimental, but it has had some success. It involves taking bone marrow and generating artificial stem cells again with DNA manipulation. Don't ask me how; that's Doctor Sane and Nova's area of Weird Science, along with that Tinwit. They could fix your little…problem..by generating you some new equipment. Sorry, they aren't up to making new arms and legs yet. You just have to live with those bombs in your arms and legs. Don't ever show me where the switch is when we get married or I might get _tempted_ to get weird and borrow an arm of yours to excavate our swimming pool! But they can make you two new little friends," she whispered. "We think."

"Maybe," said Sandor. "Would you hold it against me if we never had childrem?"

"No," said Diane as she stopped working to get up behind him and give him a hug. "But, maybe we can find a way…if you want to…"

"We'll discuss that later," said Sandor.

At that, they hugged a little before going back to work….

**1750 Hours…**

A few minutes later, in the Captain's Quarters, Derek and Nova Wildstar were still in the shower. "OWW!" Derek yelled. "YIKES!"

Nova was behind Derek, scrubbing his back. She giggled in the steam and said, "I'm sorry, Derek. Better to get rid of the salt now than have it get in any of your wounds…"

"But, you're making my back _sting_!"

"I know," she said.

"I thought you said I was forgiven," sobbed Derek.

"Shhh," said Nova as she finished scrubbing and then just stood up on her toes and tenderly held him against her unashamedly naked body in the steam. "This is the end of your rescue," she said as she ran her toes over the top of his foot and began kissing the nape of his neck. "I'll be careful with your back," she said as she ran gentle hands down his stomach. "We do not need to be concerned with it anymore, except to gently dry it…but you're clean," she whispered. "And, thank God, back safe on the ship with me again…"

"It sounds like you're finding…God…a nice way to….make…me dirty…again," said Derek as Nova's hands ended up on a nice part of his body…and her touching made him smile.

"We must be very careful here," said Nova. "We…can't..have any sea salt on you…there…"

"Why not?" gasped Derek.

Nova turned around and smiled a cute, appealing grin under her wet hair. Derek looked her down all over, thinking, _Seven months bearing our children and you look prettier every day! What is that Hartcliffe's problem, mocking you, and mocking his pregnant wife? Nova..you look more beautiful every day._ _Especially…naked…_

"I'm _that _beautiful?" said Nova as she kissed him.

"Hmmh?"

"You were saying how beautiful I look naked?" said Nova as she blushed.

"Thinking out loud," laughed Derek. "More like mumbling out loud…"

"Oh?"

"You do look very attractive right now, Mrs. Wildstar. Very attractive…and…sexy…" he said with a wink.

"You feel pretty luscious right now yourself, sir," said Nova as she shut her eyes.

"Actually, you look even better than the way you did two weeks ago," said Derek as he ran his hand over her stomach.

"You mean it?" whispered Nova.

"Hell, yes…"

"And?" said Nova.

"I want to engage in a new mission right now, Nova."

"Which is?"

"I don't need a fighter for _this_ mission…" he purred.

"Thank God," laughed Nova. "What is the mission objective?"

"Making you feel wonderful," he said as he kissed her. "Especially since you've been doing the same to me the for past ten minutes…I mean, that bottom against me, I…"

"Then go for it, silly," purred Nova while Derek touched her, caressed her, loved her, and made sure she was ready for him as he touched her stomach and breasts, smiled when he felt the babies kicking, and then, he let his hands go lower as he touched his best friend, shipmate, wife, and lover. "We have a few minutes," Nova gasped.

"Does that hurt?" whispered Derek. "If it does, I'll…"

"No…it most assuredly does not _hurt_, sir," said Nova with a cute smile on her face as her breathing sped up.

"I _am_ forgiven, my darling? I'll do anything you want to make this up to you…I swear it…"

"Yes. Derek…I..I..I want you…now…let's make up with a kiss…"

And they did. With lots of kisses.

And heaven all around as their bodies slowly joined under the water as Nova turned her back to her husband so as not to interefere with her pregnant stomach. Then, Nova danced with her husband, barefoot, pregnant, naked and unashamed in the warm water as he took her slowly and passionately and her toes curled up with delight.

In a baseball metaphor, there were several grand slams in that shower stall in the next few minutes…

In the Hartcliffes' cabin, things were not so cozy.

Angie had come in from her watch, set aside her Astro-Automatic, and was trying to stretch her legs when…

..when Bryan came out of the semi-darkness, laughing, with a bottle of Navy Rum in his hand, and insanity in his bloodshot eyes behind the almost opaque glasses he now wore.

"NOT NOW!" cried Angie as she heard him coming at her. He hit a button and the weird strains of the Beatles' "_Happiness is a Warm Gun_" began to play in their small cramped cabin; their mostly unhappy home since May.

"_She's not, a girl, who misses mooch_," sang Bryan in perfect chorus with his idol John Lennon as he came up to Angie and savagely kissed the back of her neck.

"Stop that, you…you…you…CREEP!" cried Angie as Bryan hugged her from behind and ran his hands over her breasts. He kissed her and nearly knocked her glasses off like some kind of werewolf.

"Wot's yer _problem_?" he said. "Gettin' a bloody allergic reaction to 'yer _husband_?"

"Bryan, please! The way you were at me the other night..it _hurt_! I need some time to heal _up_!" Angie trembled as Bryan pullied her uniform top halfway off her in a rough, mean fashion. She had just begun wearing a male-pattern Star Force uniform in the Flight Support Group colors of white and gold; it was a uniform made to fit her similar to the sort Nova now usually wore.

"Feet up," he said as he grabbed at the sandals she had just began to wear today due to slightly swollen ankles and as he made her kneel, he pulled them roughly off her, leaving her barefoot on the cold deck before she could protest. "Now, relax," he said as he undid her slacks and panties and just roughly pulled them down to her calves as he breathed roughly against her neck. She could smell Navy Rum on his breath, and it was not a nice smell.

"C'mon, you, stop bloody strugglin'! I ain't _rapin_' yer!"

"It _feels_ like it!" cried Angie. "Even though I _am_ giving in to you! But be nice!"

"Oh, c'mon, stop yer runnin' at the mouth and 'ave some Rum…" he said.

Angie struggled as he grabbed the bottle of Navy Rum and forced her to drink some. Undiluted by any soda, it burned as it entered her mouth and burned going down to her stomach. She almost retched it up and tears ran down her face as Bryan played with her breasts.

"Bryan, I want to be _dressed_!" she said. "Or totally naked! One or the other! Make up your mind! Then _finish_ this! I want you and you are making me want you, but I am tired! And hungry!"

"Oh, shuddup, _luv_…" he said as he opened her bra from the front. "Nice, nice, _nice_," he said as he leered at her. "They're gettin' a wee bit bigger…and those boobs…hahahaha!" He squeezed her.._hard_. It hurt.

"Please stop this," sobbed Angie as tears ran down her cheeks. "At least let me get ready for you! I want either a negligee on, or nothing..please…this is not _decent_! You making me submit to you half-dressed like this…like a street whore or something!"

"SHUDDUP!" he yelled as he slapped her face, and not lighthly with affection as a tease, either. He _belted_ her. "Ya stupid bird! Put out for me _my_ way! DO IT!" he yelled.

"Bryan!" she yelled as she tried to kick him away. She was getting tired of this and wanted to at least catch her breath. Instead, she got tangled up in her own pants and fell on her hands and knees. Bryan landed on the deck with her. Angie heard his zipper opening on his uniform pants. She heard him laughing as he grew closer. Angie then gasped as she felt him against her. "Bryan! Please! I'm _pregnant_!" she cried. "Show _some_ consideration! Be gentle with me! You made me drink that rum! That could hurt the baby! And I'm not feeling so good, either! Let me clear my head before we DO THIS!"

She tried to get away, but he held her closer. He felt…like…a werewolf.

"Yeah, yer pregnant, so bloody _wot_?" said Bryan as he just took her with no preparation, love play, or warning as she just screamed. "Three months now by me count, and you're gonna 'ave a balloon out of yer soon. A balloon. So might as well use yer now before you get fat and _ugly_ on me like your icky girlfriend!"

"BRYAN!" she screamed as he went savagely at her.

"Y'like it?"

"I do NOT!" cried Angie as she struggled at Bryan's roughness. "You're hurting me, you _dirtbag_! We were going to have dinner soon. Nova was going to let me in the galley tonight to make us steaks at 1900! Just like we were at home! Please! Let's save this until after _dinner_! I'm hungry! Then we can _make love_ all we want!"

"Ah, you and 'er, comin' up with these stupid ideas," hissed Bryan as he grunted.

"Bryan…if you're going to insist on lovemaking now, at least do it _right_! That means in the bunk, both of us decently naked at least! I like to look at you! And treat me like a _real_ woman, too!"

Bryan slapped Angie on her cheek again and yelled, "SHURRUP! I need to get off!"

Then, he roughly pulled her clothing entirely off her, and shoved her to the deck on her bare back and bottom, leaving her very naked and cold on the hard deck, bare, not even a rug on the deck…and not even in their bed as he came at her like a beast again with just his pants down as she cried, too tired and humiliated to fight him any more. Bryan had once had a nice body (when it was clean) and Angie had used to like admiring him (and cuddling up to his nakedness as Nova and Sasha did with their mates). Now, he never pulled off his clothes anymore when they made love…or some mockery of it, and he always took her with those weird sunglasses on. Angie realized that the last time she had seen him fully nude was about three months ago, when they had conceived the baby boy (she had recently found out) that she was now carrying.

She screamed when he took her again.

And he was _not _gentle.

Overpowered by his strong, rough hands, Angie shut her eyes, tried to feel as little as possible, and submitted to him with no joy in it at all for herself as she cried.

Her body betrayed her, feeling a hot, burning passion in spite of her wishes…and her anger at this horror of a husband she had married nearly six years ago.

_I've been with him, and has he gotten better_? Angie thought as she wept and accepted him as he just grunted like an animal. _No kindness from him. No loving words from him any more …l Just, grunting…he's so bitter that I'm pregnant. Why? He did it to me, the louse! HE DID THIS TO ME! IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT, NOT USING PROTECTION THAT NIGHT…!_

In the meantime, Nova and Derek were up in their cabin, spent and happy as they lay snuggling together on their bunk after having had another playful time on their bunk. _They _were dry, and their hair was dry, but they both still wore absolutely nothing. They were watching the chrono for their appointment, but they had no particular need of clothing at the current time.

Nova lay with her cheek on Derek's chest as he sang to her in a very good voice. "_Oh, darling…please believe me…I'll never do you…_"

"_no harm_," Nova joined in as she sang along to this rather different Beatles piece.

Then their voices joined in post-love bliss as they sang, "_believe me when I tell you…I'll never do you…no harm…_"

"_Boom boom boom boom boom boom_," sang Derek as he imitated McCartney's bass line on the song.

Then, someone began banging on the hatch. "_Captain_!" yelled Domon from the other side. "I'm here with Wakefield and Sasha! Per your orders, sir…"

"Ohhh, _fudge_!" said Nova as she suddenly blushed. "I'm…."

"I'm the same way, _Nova…_" said Derek with a blush. He kissed Nova, got up, and said, "I'll get my pants…what do you want?"

"Your shirt," she said as she quickly (and seductively) clothed her nakedness in his shirt. It covered her but left her long legs very bare. It was a rather gorgeous sight.

As Derek pulled on his pants, another knock came at the door. "Uncle!" called Sasha. "Are you alive in there?"

"Give us two shakes of a kitten's tail!" cried Nova.

Derek closed his pants up, kissed Nova, threw a towel around his shoulders, and he got up and answered the hatch.

"Sorry, guys," he said as he accepted their salutes. "It's been a crazy night and a long day. Nova and I were just catching some…uh…rack time…"

Waklefield gave them a look that said, "_Yeah, right_" as he thought of where he'd prefer to be right now (in a similar situation with Sasha in their cabin with the hatch locked). Nova smiled sheepishly and said, "Sasha, when he gets to be a Captain someday, be prepared to be disturbed at weird hours of the day. Nova then bowed, looking as gracious as she possibly could while in nothing except for her husband's shirt, which just kept her covered (not that anyone there seemed to be _complaining_ about her current attire) and she said, "Who wants tea, guys?"

Everyone's hands went up.

Nova rolled up her eyes, and smiled a little. She twirled on her toes and said, "I keep my all of my tea bags numbered in case of emergency. Starting the water now…"

**FIVE MINUTES LATER…**

Commodore Wildstar was up sipping at his fresh tea with lemon with a towel over his shoulders (Nova kept slices up there in their little fridge) and he said, "Okay, Domon. That's what we need to do. I just explained why."

"That's low, even for _him_," said Deke. Deke looked at Sasha, shrugged, and got his sticks out of his bag and started drumming against Wildstar's table top. No one complained.

Nova handed Deke some tea with some sugar packets and lemon. Wakefield sighed. He was not a tea drinker. "Here, ma'am, you can have this," he said as he handed her his lemon slice. "I do appreciate the effort but, I hate lemon."

"Lemon is good for you," said Nova with a smile. "Without it, you might get some nasty vitamin deficiency."

"Ma'am, you're my aunt, but with all respect, _de nada_. You take it. I take vitamins as prescribed," said Wakefield.

Nova shrugged, sat down (after making sure her shirt was not riding up and exposing anything untoward) and she took her tea with two lemon slices. She liked lemon, as well as most kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables.

"I can't believe that Hartcliffe," said Domon.

"You mean he just let Ensign Advair _die_?" said Sasha.

Derek nodded sadly. "Per Hardy, yes."

"For him, that's a _new_ low," said Nova. "I actually thought he was growing up. Until Angie got pregnant. Now he's regressing…"

"Back to what he was in 2201," said Derek. "Or even worse. I would not give him command of the Black Tigers, let alone the whole Flight Group now…"

"_So desu ka_?" said Nova in a somewhat higher voice as she sadly shook her head. Deke looked at her strangely until Nova said, "Japanese. My second language as a child. We sometimes spoke it at home and when we lived on Great Island for a few years…"

Derek looked at her, said "_Ehh_," in a different voice and then said, "Back to Standard English, dear…"

"Oh, yes," said Nova. She yawned and said. "I think we can make some changes?"

Wildstar looked at Wakefield. "Up to handling the Tigers and Trojans as one until Hardy gets back on his feet?"

"Well, it'll look good on my resume'," said Deke as he yawned and drummed some more with his drumsticks. "Sorry, sir. Really…tired…"

"We know the feeling," said Wildstar as he sipped at his tea.

"Sir, we know about tired. The thing is, when are they coming back?" asked Domon.

Derek sipped at his tea. "Hard to say…"

"I have a rather scary feeling about this," said Sasha. "I do not think it will go well. I think they are plotting something. But I do not know _what_ it is!"

"We should be on our guard, you are saying?" said Derek.

Sasha nodded at that.

Wildstar then looked at Wakefield. "Can you handle both squadrons?"

Deke nodded. "It'll be hard…but I can do it, sir…"

"Best of luck to you," said Wildstar. "You're now in temporary command of the entire Flight Group until Hardy is back on his feet. Nova, give him copies of Hardy's latest briefing files as soon as you can. I'll provide the computer access…"

"Yessir," said both Wakefield and Mrs. Wildstar together.

A few minutes later, after Wakefield, Sasha, and Domon left their cabin, Nova got decently dressed in her uniform, worn tonight with a skirt and her sandals. Then, as Derek did some paperwork, he smiled a little as Nova rooted in their locker for something.

"Where _is_ it?" she said as she stood on tiptoes looking for something on a high shelf.

"Where is what?" said Derek.

"Those pewter candlesticks I packed for when we have a romantic candlelight dinner which, incidentially, I owe you," said Nova. "When you have the time, that is. I promised to help Angie and Bryan Hartcliffe have one; she said he was at least trying to be semi-nice to her, and…"

Derek got up and reached up, reaching the shelf easier with his 6' 1" frame as compared to Nova's smaller 5' 7" frame in flats. "You mean these?" he said.

Nova reached around and hugged and kissed Derek. "Thank you, Derek! You are such a sweetheart…"

"Well, it's not very gentlemanly or honorable seeing you strain yourself…especially in your current condition," he said.

"You're a prince," said Nova. "Don't mistake that with being Zordar, of course. You are not in that late maniac's league…"

"I hope not," said Derek. "I don't think I'd look good with green skin and white hair." He felt his upper lip. "Should I try growing a…?"

"No," said Nova.

"I mean a mou…"

"NO," said Nova more firmly. "I like you the way you are now, sir," she said as she kissed his lips again. "Fuzz on you would just get in the way…"

"And?" said Derek as Nova closed the locker door.

"On you, a moustache might look like a fat brown pregnant caterpillar," said Nova with a giggle. She ran to the hatch, blew him a kiss, winked, and flounced off down the stairs with her candlesticks in her hands.

In the meantime, back on the _Eritz Gatlantis_, Menklen had come back to Invidia's throne room with his tail between his legs. Accompanied by Tre'ger, he stood with his head bowed as Invidia slapped him across the face.

"_You idiot_!" yelled Invidia. "Tre'ger sent us the battle report! You go up against nine Terran, Gamilon, and Iscandarian ships vid sixteen of our ships! You have them outnumbered nearly two to one with superior weaponry on our side, superior manuverability, superior crews, and you _lose_ against eight old ships and one sort of new one? Fool! Do you think we grow new warships on trees back on our conquered Planet Breshtava? No, we have slaves building them!"

"To make it worse, he lost to Wildstar's little pet _female_," said Tre'ger. "The one you tried to kill twice. It appears she is alive and well and making your commanders look like idiots. She is maybe two months away from spawning her young. Little damn Valkyrie! Will she still be fighting us when she is in labor?"

"You lost to Nova?" sneered Invidia. _Damn her, she is almost as much of a thorn in my side as her accursed husband_, thought Invidia.

"Yes, we lost to her," said Menklen.

"You lost to a young woman half your _age_?" sneered Invidia. "She's only a little older than I am. Fool!" Invidia clapped her hands. "Commandant!" she yelled as a commander and four guards came up. "Get this man down to the torture chambers; Sphere of Joy for him for punishment before we give him back his ship…make sure he loses some of his _anatomy_ in there!"

"NOOOO!" yelled Menklen as he was dragged away. "HAVE MERCY!"

A little later, Invidia sat drinking wine with Gorse as he said to her, "I'm not sure I like this strategy, Princess…"

"_He_ suggested it," said Invidia.

"You'd listen to a man…I think, who shook you by the neck and tried to kill you just the other day?" said Gorse.

"He has made amends in my book," said Invidia. "He contacted the R'Khells for me and gave us new hope. It is then that I remembered Baron Vilzal. He is an outcast like we are. He has given us more new hope."

"What is this strategy you have come to discuss?"

"Gamilon will soon be dealt with; they will surrender or we will destroy all on that planet, courtesy of Skaldart. I want to deal with Earth myself. That is why I want this plan executed," she smiled as she opened a notebook.

"Case Sapphire _Ged_?" he gasped as he looked at the plan. "Princess, you know the operational doctrine! We do not execute this step on Earth until we defeat the Earth Defense Fleet!"

"What will they have to defend if we start _devastating_ the little planet?" purred Invidia. "And while Star Force is tied down here trying to be gallant and help Desslok, we jam the Sanzar System so no word from Earth gets to them; and then we force Earth to recognize the old surrender they were about to sign. Then, who knows? Maybe we attack Iscandar with the enslaved Earth Defense Fleet under our command? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! And the _Argo_ destroyed, maybe, by Earth's own flagship, the _Pennsylvania__?_ I like this…"

"When do we execute?" sighed Gorse.

"It begins now," said Invidia as she stood. "Give out the orders and prepare us for continuous warp to the Milky Way. Our next stop….Earth! _Ha ha ha ha ha haaa!_"

_This is amusing_, thought Gorse. B_ut is it wise? How far into destruction do we follow this impulsive, crazy woman?_

But, Invidia, ignoring him, stood there with her hand over her mouth, just laughing. She seemed to like this idea, as weird as it was.

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**1930 Hours….**

Nova arrived in the galley a few minutes later, setting her candlesticks down on a counter.

Sr. Lt. Ben McCutcheon, the Living Group's Galley Chief under her command, was not there.

Instead, his second-in-command of the Galley Section, a Lieutenant named Odelle Cummings, was busy stirring some pasta in one pot and some vegetables in another.

"Good evening, ma'am," said Cummings in her sweet, smoky Southern tones. She wore a white apron over her gold and black Living Group uniform, and the large earrings she often wore under her Afro glittered under the kitchen lights against her dark skin.

"Good evening, Lieutenant," said Nova. "Have you seen Bryan and Angie yet, Odelle?"

"They're late," said Cummings. "They were supposed to be down here a while ago at 1915. I have a table set up for them and all…"

"When did you last go out to check?" said Nova as she opened a refrigerator. She pulled out two strip steaks. "You picked out nice ones…"

"Supplies of the fresh stuff are starting to go a little short," said Cummings. "Makes me think back to the days when Sam and I were trying to run the diner in New York before it got hit by the planet bombs and we had to go underground and he died and then they called me back into the service," said the 49-year old officer. In spite of the fact that she had twenty years on Nova, Cummings didn't look that old. "We were about to start our own family when Sam died…" said Odelle with a sigh.

"I'm so sorry," Nova said as she gave Cummings a pat on the shoulder.

"Hey, life goes on," said Odelle. "I hear someone out there now. Want me to get the broiler ready while you go and check?"

"Sounds good; I'll be right back," said Nova.

Nova ran out to the mess hall to find a scene that disturbed her a great deal.

Angie sat there, alone, at a table, crying her eyes out.

"What's wrong?" said Nova.

"Bryan and I had a horrible fight," said Angie as she hugged Nova. "He called me all sorts of terrible things! He…."

"Did he _slap_ you?" cried Nova as she saw how red her face was.

"Yes, but…I don't want to press charges…he….it was my fault, and…"

"It is NOT your fault," said Nova as she knelt down beside her chair and held her hands hard. "Where is Lieutenant Hartcliffe _now_?"

"In our cabin," said Angie. "He…got hold of some party rum from the ship's stores…I don't know how…he's dead drunk…"

"God's _blood_," muttered Nova. She took a deep, huffing breath. "Well, he won't be in your cabin any _mor_e tonight…he'll be sobering up somewhere else; the brig!" said Nova. "I have to report him; dereliction of duty and misdemeanor spousal abuse."

"I don't want him jailed for this!" cried Angie. "We had a fight! That's it! Do you put Derek in the brig when _you two_ have fights?"

"Derek does _not_ slap me around like that," snapped Nova. "That's charge two. Charge one is because we could possibly use him in a cockpit and he's going around stinking drunk! We could be in battle any minute! This is a space warship, not some animal house party dorm at some college! What an idiot! I'll be right back…"

Nova squeezed Angie's hands, got up and went to the nearest phone and dialed a number. "Lieutenant Hemsford?" she said.

"Yes, ma'am," said Pat Hemsford of the Marine Group. "What can I do for you tonight, my lovely lady?"

"Can you send a Corporal and two men down to Room C-235 on Charlie Deck in Living Block? You'll find a Flight Group Lieutenant down below in there. He'll be drunk. I want him arrested and put in the brig. Then, I want an Incident Report from your men on his condition. I'm doing a presentment for Captain's Mast in the morning based on it. I'll be short some sleep tonight."

"Isn't that Hartcliffe?" said Hemsford.

"Yes, Pat, it sure is," sighed Nova. "Why do you ask?"

"We got him out of one drunken scrape the other day on Iscandar at the Cocoanut Grove, ma'am, when we were doin' shore patrol. Hardy gave him a good reprimand for that one…"

"I want to make sure he gets more than a _reprimand_ this time," snapped Nova. "Make those reports good; Lieutenant Commander Wildstar out!"

"Hey, wot is this?" yelled Bryan Hartcliffe in a semi-conscious stupor as he came to in the _Argo's_ brig, "I've been in 'ere before!"

"You are under arrest," said a Marine. "Captain's Mast for you tomorrow morning, after you dry out."

"I'm not drunk!" yelled Hartcliffe in a drunken, slurred voice in his battered orange prisoners' jumpsuit.

The Marine guards ignored him…and let him stew.

In the meantime, in her cabin, Nova sighed and began writing up an investigative report as to Hartcliffe's actions.

She would be busy with it for a while; this would be a long night…

**VI. TROUBLE ON THE HOME FRONT**

**Earth**

**Western North America**

**Langtry's Lounge**

**The Vicinity of Boulder, Colorado**

**(Local Time) Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1802 Hours **

On the _Argo_, which ran, with the rest of the Fleet, on Tokyo Megalopolis time, it was now close to 0400 hours on July 3rd. On Earth, though, it was still the second on many parts of the planet due to the International Date Line.

At the moment, two women sat at bar stools in a bar near the University of Colorado that was slowly beginning to fill up with the evening crowd.

One women was a red-headed lady in her early fifties in an off-white skirted suit with pink blouse and pumps. She was named Vanessa Caverness, and she was the current Chair of the Art Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She had just gotten out of a faculty meeting to plot the new academic year with her friend, with whom she was laughing and sharing highballs, which were cocktails made of ginger ale, ice, and bourbon.

Her friend was just a year younger, and she wore her dark hair down tonight (which surprised Vanessa because she usually wore it up in a bun) and she wore a green silken pantsuit with gold pants and shiny black patent sandals. Vanessa noticed that her friend, the new Co-Chair of the Art and Photography Department, was trying to look about fifteen years younger tonight with the way she was flipping her hair around, laughing…and, even, apparently, _flirting_ a little with younger men.

"Teri, if I can ask, where's Karl tonight? Weren't you going to meet him here?"

Teri Forrester shook her head and said, "Darn him, he had to go to San Diego at the last minute this morning for a legal seminar at Pan-Am University! Why can't he be _home_ with me more? This is getting old! I had to get my cousin Jane at short notice to watch the children."

"How are Aurora and David doing?"

"They like to destroy the house and run around like wild animals," said Teri brightly. "Typical behavior for kids pushing five years old. David will _never_ sit still, but Aurora is starting to learn how to play quietly. She likes girls' activities and hates climbing trees, thank Heavens. She likes holding tea party with her stuffed animals," Teri giggled. She sipped at her drink.

Then, Teri said, "That's cute. I only saw her older sister doing that maybe one-third of the time when she was her age. But, she wanted the _play nurse kit_ at that age. And she was reading books way beyond her years. Thank Heavens Aurora isn't as precocious as Nova was."

Teri went silent and drank her highball again. "Gifted children can be such trouble sometimes," she said as she began to slur her words a little. "Children will drive you to drink. Aurora is Mommy's New Little Girl. David is the New Comet," said Teri. "Nova is…I don't know what she is! And she won't even tell me where she is with _him_ in those e-mails, either. She just says she, Derek, and the little ones inside her are fine. The rest is classified for military reasons, she said…even where she is now! Classified. It is my daughter's life and it is _classified_?"

"It's wartime, Teri," said Vanessa.

"Wartime! They all say that," said Teri as she threw up her hands. She banged down her money and said, "Bartender? Another, please?"

"I hope you're not _driving_, ma'am," muttered the bartender after he and his serving robot made up another one and handed it to Teri.

"I'll be fine," said Teri with an ironic grin.

"What's on video?" sheaid Teri as she looked up at the screen above the bar.

"Ballgame," said Vanessa. "Rockies against the Phillies; Colorado is losing 5 to 3…"

Teri looked up, bored at the tri-d screen and a batter for the Phillies as the announcer said, "Ramirez swings, hits…pops fly to the foul line…strike two…."

The image suddenly faded out as a graphic came up that read FEDERATION GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL BULLETIN. Another graphic read BREAKING NEWS: EARTH DEFENSE HEAQUARTERS…

A moment later, activity in the bar stopped as an image of General Stone behind a podium came up. He was sweating and looked shaken as reporters yelled things at him. "Are we sure of this? _Has it been confimed!?_ What can we do?"

"YES IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED!" barked Stone. Then, he faced the camera. "We received an update from the Gamilon Embassy that the New Comet, which was observed at the edge of a battle in the Sanzar System which is largely completed, for the moment, warped away from the Sanzar System at 0401 Hours Earth Spacetime. We didn't think much of that, until the next flash came in. Namely, at 0403 Hours, a new Black Nebulan Fleet and a huge object appeared in the Sanzar System near Gamilon. That was the last we heard from them! We then tried to raise the Star Force, but found at once that an enemy jamming screen has gone up interdicting all communications with the _Argo_, Starsha, or Desslok."

Stone paused. "You were called here to be notified that the Sanzar System is again under heavy attack and that the _Argo_ and her Task Force are now out of contact…"

"GOD!" Teri screamed over the announcement. "NOVA! MY BABY!"

"Would ya shut UP, lady?" yelled someone with a Brooklyn accent.

"…but, then….Mars Base called in. It just sent its last transmission," said Stone. "Before we lost contact with them, we found out exactly where the New Comet was…and is…"

"Where?" barked a reporter as lots of people yelled.

Stone swallowed hard. "Our Eye in the Sky Satellites are tracking it. It is beginning to shed its energy field…no sign of a Fleet seen yet…Admiral Yamanami and First and Third Fleets have been dispatched to intercept…"

The room filled with hubbub and yells, as did the bar. "Well, where IS it?" someone yelled.

Stone swallowed again. "It's coming at high speed…it is six hundred megameters away from Mars…and firing at Phobos!"

"Course?" yelled someone else.

"A parabolic course," said Stone. "It's been tracked. The Battle Satellites are ready…the emergency Automated Fleet is ready as well, until the First and Third Fleets arrive…we are trying to reach the Star Force." Stone snapped. "Commanding General Singleton is being roused from his bed. We are ordering all citizens to seek shelter…"

"So where is the New Comet Empire?" yelled someone.

"Heading…right…for…Earth," said Stone.

"OH MY GOD!" screamed Teri from her bar stool. Then, she began to cry. _My babies_, she thought. _David, Aurora, will I even have time to get them? Is Karl safe? And what about Nova? Is she even still alive? I should have never let him take her on this mission pregnant…NEVER! _Teri thought as she just began to cry harder.

But soon, there would be no time at all for tears…

And, soon…this time, the effect upon Earth of Invidia's latest round of madness would be far, FAR worse….

But, in the Cosmos, as she looked down upon what would soon be a suffering Earth, Trelaina sighed to herself. _To prevent an even greater evil in the years to come, _she thought_. I must stay my hand now. I have foreseen much. The defeat of Invidia…this time around, will not be my battle…as much as I am tempted to, this time…I cannot intervene. This time, what happens, must happen. _

_Destiny has written me a hard script. But, for spring to come, for Earth to live and grow and reach out to the rest of the universe, for now, she must endure a very hard frost…_

And, at that, knowing she was constrained, Trelaina wept.

**TO BE CONTINUED…. **


	5. Chapter 5

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY**

**Being the eighth part of _THE NEW COMET_-- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of **Derek A.C. Wakefield** (as usual)

Thanks to Gail Kopetz (Fluffy) for a plot point regarding Talan in this tale…

**ACT FIVE: UNDER THE HEEL OF THE ENEMY…**

**I. PLANNING FOR A DESPERATE OPERATION**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Space, Near Planet Gamilon**

**Friday, July 3, 2207: 0446 Hours Earth Space-Time **

Gamilon and Iscandar were in chaos.

Communications out of the system were jammed because of a strong jamming field that Desslok was trying to have countered; but it was difficult.

Anti-matter missiles had hit Gamilon and destroyed two cities in a truly deranged attack.

And the Black Nebulans had managed to land a huge, terrible ship on Gamilon; right in the middle of Gamilstadt itself!

In the meantime, on the _Argo, _another briefing was taking place in the Central Strategy Room once again.

This time, the circumstances were truly desperate.

As the Cometine and Black Nebulan attack had continued, Desslok had stayed on Gamilon in his Command Bunker with Astrena and Dellar, but he had sent Talan to the _Argo_ upon the advice of Astrena, who had also asked Aliscea to work with them to try and devise some way to defeat the Black Nebulans _and_ Ekogaru.

An old friend of Earth from the Rikasha Incident, General Frausky, head of the Gamilon _Scientifikat_, or Science Bureau, was on board the _Argo_ again with many message capsules of information. They had last worked with in a battle situation in April of 2202, but they had worked with him on and off since then.

"Commodore Wildstar," he said. "I have ascertained the type of weapon that the Black Nebulans landed on Gamilon one hour ago. It is something we were working on ourselves, but we have perfected it."

"What is it called?" said Sandor.

"A hyperon bomb," said Frausky.

"Wait, I know a little of the theory behind that, Frausky…," said Sandor. "It creates a wave, that…"

"If detonated, it creates a wave that destroys any and all forms of carbon-bearing life within a planetary radius," said Frausky.

"Wait!" cried Nova. "They want to kill everybody on _Gamilon_?"

Talan stood there and said, "Yes, what _you tried_ to do maybe…seven years ago when you attacked us…"

"With all respect," said Nova. "I hate to bring this up, because it is a bad memory, but you dragged us there _first!_ And even then, I didn't set out to devastate your planet, and neither did Derek or Captain Avatar! We just wanted to escape you and get to Iscandar! These people have a fully formed intent to wipe your people out! That makes things far worse…"

"_Mrs. Wildstar_," snapped Talan. "Genocide is _genocide_! We are on the same side now, but that does not mean I…after all, I lost my dear wife Eloise when you attacked Gamilon. She was pregnant, like _you_, Mrs. Wildstar. That was a tragedy!"

"I could say the same myself because of that little business with my parents…" began Derek.

"Would you people _stop_ this?" said Aliscea. "Refighting wars from seven years ago isn't going to help us _now_, Derek, Nova, and Talan! Desslok is on Gamilon trying to organize the rest of his forces, but he wants us to see if we can come up with something first…to do that, we need to make certain some hatchets remain buried."

"I certainly will keep the hatchet buried," hissed Talan, who bowed. "I pray, Wildstar, that you are more fortunate with Nova than I was with Eloise."

"I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, General Talan," said Nova as she came over and took his unwilling gauntleted hands. "You should have told us about this beforehand; we could have helped you."

"Nova, I thank you," said Talan formally. "I am a warrior, and do not require your help in dealing with my past. However, the thought is appreciated. I am sorry if you are."

Nova nodded. "Of course we are, aren't we, Derek?"

"Yeah," said Derek as he looked down at his boots. "I'm sorry…."

"Enough," said Aliscea. "I think we should consider the present and see how we will stop the enemy force now. That bomb has to be neutralized."

"On that, we all can agree," said Frausky. "Ideas?"

Wildstar looked at Talan and stood deep in thought. "Do you have an invasion force available?"

"We tried that already, Earthling," snapped Talan. "The bomb has some sort of energy field surrounding it. We tried attacking it with Gamilon space tanks; we tried bombarding it with destroyers; we tried shooting missiles at it, and we tried sending in ground forces to attack. Nothing can get through that accursed barrier."

"Have you considered SMITE?" said Frausky. "If Desslok's flagship could SMITE mines into the field…they could be exploded by radio…that would destroy it…"

"We tried that already from a carrier….it did not work. The bomb has some kind of interdict field to keep anything from warping too close to it, and…" said Talan as Nova suddenly brightened; Derek recognized a look on her face that meant she had caught on to something. "General?" she said. "I have an idea. Do you have scans of the field?"

"Of course we do, Nova," he snorted. "I'll bring them up…"

Talan nodded to one of his men, who was by an Ensign at a control console in the _Argo's_ briefing room. "Here it is. The field stops, for now, at the surface, with a few meters' space between the bomb and the field here, and…"

Nova smiled. "Stop. Derek, remember that course we took together in 2203 at the Staff Space Naval War College?"

"That!" said Derek. "You and that so-called goofy presentation," he smiled. "Except it does not seem so goofy now."

"What is it?" said Talan.

"Simple," said Nova. "You men all missed this in its simplicity. I did a presentation on a similar theoretical attack problem and how it could be beaten. In theory, of course. How hard is the rock and soil that makes up Gamilon's surface there, near where that drill went in…?"

"It is workable," said Talan who finally grasped what Nova was thinking. "Are you thinking of…?"

Nova nodded. "Drill under the field, and send in a small team. The team can get into the Bomb and demolish it…just like we did with the Comet Empire, Derek!"

"We have more than enough Marines," said Wildstar.

"I have a Commando Force I can send you to help," said Talan. "They will, of course, be briefed. Briefed and they will be prepared to give their lives for Leader Desslok…."

"No one's gonna die if we can help it," said Commodore Wildstar…

**II. THE WAR STRIKES HOME**

**Earth**

**Space Battleship _Pennsylvania_**

**Space, Near Planet Venus**

**Friday, July 3, 2207 **

**0502 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

"Sir," said a young woman on the bridge of the _Pennsylvania_, a sister ship to the _Arizona_ that was now the flagship of the Combined Fleet of the Earth Defense Forces. "The Commander is calling."

Admiral Yamanami, Commander of the Combined Fleet, came to attention and saluted. "General. When are we needed?"

"As soon as possible," said Singleton. "It's coming in very fast; it just cleared the Moon Orbit."

"It will take us twelve minutes," said Yamanami with his head bowed. "We have to clear the gravity well of Venus before we can warp. Then, First Fleet will be eight more minutes away from intercept range at maximum speed. Third Fleet, near the Mars side of the Asteroid Belt, is the only other fleet that can intercept them in time. Except for the forces we have on Earth and the automated fleet, that is."

"So that is twenty minutes to intercept?"

Yamanami nodded.

"Hmmm…a lot can happen in twenty minutes, Admiral."

"Let's pray we get a chance. Where is the _Argo_ and the _Arizona_?"

"Still in the Sanzar System. But we have not been able to raise either of them, Admiral," said Singleton. "All we're getting is static. Something has the Sanzar System jammed. We haven't been able to reach the Gamilons, either. And the Gamilon Ambassador tells us he is not getting through, either…"

"_Kuso,_" muttered Yamanami. "Then we fight them with what we have. Admiral Jacobi's in command of the automated fleet?"

The Commander nodded.

"Let's pray he can do some damage with those things. I think they were a big waste of tax money, sir. Especially if the enemy jams communications in this system like they are doing at Sanzar."

"They did work better in trials than the battle satellites," snapped Singleton. "As for what I think otherwise…"

"I'll be there soon," said Yamanami. "We're at maximum battle speed."

"Thank you, Admiral," said Singleton.

In the meantime, Invidia and Gorse were lining up to attack Earth itself.

An officer came up to them, saluted, and said, "Princess…General…we are twelve Terran time-units, known as minutes, away from achieving orbit of Planet Earth!"

"The plan, Gorse, is to terrorize them into surrender," she said. "We will begin by blasting that small continent that we can see here on the screen."

"We're _not _attacking the Moon again?" he said.

"That terrorized them last time, but not enough," said Invidia. "If they see flame and smoke on their precious world, they will be convinced that we mean _business_!"

"Princess," said another messenger. "We have received word from Skaldart that the _Argo_ is making a sortie towards Gamilon with her Task Force. What they are doing is unknown…"

"Inform Skaldart he has my permission to activate the Double Nucleus Bomb on Gamilon whenever he sees fit to do so. And tell him that we want the _Argo_ finished off at last!"

"Yes, Princess," said the messenger.

A third messenger ran up. "An Earth fleet is approaching us. It seems to be controlled by comm signals from Earth."

"Jam the signals before they can even get to us," said Gorse.

"This might be _amusing_," laughed Invidia. "Last time, they tried attacking your fleet with those _ridiculous_ battle satellites, Gorse! Let's watch and see what happens…."

Five minutes later, the ships of the EDF's Automated Fleet suddenly stopped responding to commands from Earth.

They had gotten just within enough range to start attacking, and had gotten to fire two shots at the _Eritz Gatlantis_, when the jamming field went up.

On Earth, Admiral Jacobi became very upset when he watched his automated fleet-the space battleships, space cruisers, space destroyers, just ramming into each other and destroying themselves.

"What happened to the uplink?" he yelled.

"Nothing is getting through, sir!" said one officer at a keyboard.

""We aren't able to get the wave motion radio subbands working, either, sir," said a female officer as she came up and saluted in her whites. "All dead, sir. Same with the battle sateliites…"

"Sweet Mother of God," said Jacobi with tears in his eyes. "We've just failed Earth. Where's the Defense Fleet?"

"Fourteen minutes away," said a young officer with his head bowed.

"So….another loss," sighed Jacobi. He shook his head in anger and sadness and left the young officers to watch as their mission objectives blew apart.

"We are within firing range of Earth," said an officer aboard the _Eritz Gatlantis_ a few minutes later.

"Commence firing," said Gorse.

The _Eritz Gatlantis'_ belt cannons began firing at Earth like mad.

Sydney, Australia, took the first hits.

In a moment, hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children died screaming in pain as the energy bolts slammed into Australia in the middle of the night, with no warning at all.

The ship fired again and again and again….devastating more and more of Earth as it attacked.

Two, three more shots came….New Zealand was hit, followed by Papua New Guinea…and back to Australia.

The devastation was quick, and cruel. The sky over the Australian subcontinent grew pitch-black in the night as their winter grew even colder. Dark clouds filled the sky, and a sudden terrible snow began to fall. But it was not snow.

It was fallout from what remained of Sydney.

And, as Invidia watched video of the destruction sent up from recon Scorpions she had launched, she began laughing her head off.

"They'll surrender now, Gorse!" she howled. "Look what we have done to their precious planet!"

"They'll be easy to gain a surrender from now," said Gorse. "They must be running about their Capitol in a panic about now!"

"YES!"

The Cometine officers just laughed at the devastation they had caused.

"We've just lost contact with the ANZAC region!" yelled an officer in Earth Defense Headquarters.

"Recon satellite estimates ten direct Magna-Flame Cannon hits upon Earth!" yelled out another officer.

"Comet Empire city now in near orbit of Earth," reported another officer.

"Signal coming in from the New Comet City!" reported one other officer.

"Put it up on the main screen," said Commanding General Singleton as he stood with his head bowed. _We failed_, he thought. _All this fighting, all this sacrifice, and we still failed. Now our only hope is that Admiral Yamanami can stop….that thing…._

A moment later, the gloating face of General Gorse appeared on the main screen in Earth Defense Headquarters. "I am General Gorse, the viceroy of Princess Invidia over Earth. Your time has run _out_, people of Earth," he said with an arrogant smile on his face. "We have your capital in our sights and we can easily make an adjustment and begin bombardment at once. We can destroy all life on your planet in a few hours. Do _not_ underestimate us. Our patience with you and your resistance has run out. Which one of you is the Commanding General?"

"I am," said Singleton.

"I vaguely remember your face, Earthling slime," said Gorse. "You were one of those behind your fake surrender of almost six years ago, were you not?"

"I have no comment on that," said the Commander. "We surrendered in good faith."

"For that comment, you are sentenced to a concentration camp when we land," said Gorse. "Now…our offer! Princess Invidia is merciful! We give you and your government one hour. One hour to surrender and demobilize your fleets. Just one hour to sign a separate peace and to withdraw from this war and accept our overlordship. I will have you know that your Alliance has failed you. Gamilon is crushed. It is being occupied now. Planet Iscandar is under our boot already. Your Star Force is about to be defeated. If they live, we will bring them back home in chains to await trial, torture, and public execution. What do you say to that?"

Singleton bowed his head. "I need to consult with my President and Prime Minister. We do not make these decisions alone."

"Then deliberate, damn you!" said Gorse. "You have fifty-nine minutes left. We expect an answer soon. The bombardment begins again if we are attacked."

Then, the screen went dead.

"Commander," said General Stone. "Call Yamanami back! Make him stand down. We have no choice but to…"

Singleton stood with his eyes closed. "Not yet," said Singleton. He took a few deep breaths. "Call the President, Stone. General Kohler, how far away is First Fleet?"

"Four minutes from intercept," said Kohler, the Intelligence General.

"Stone, give him a chance…that Comet field is down…if they can hit that thing with all of their wave motion guns…"

Stone glared at Singleton. "Sir, you _are_ my superior. But I cannot agree with this."

Singleton glared at him. "Carry out my orders; General. Call the President!"

"Three minutes to intercept!" said an officer. "No! Second vessel spotted. Range, nine hundred megameters from Earth and closing!"

"Put it on the screen," said Singleton.

He did. Singleton's heart almost stopped.

It was another Black Dreadnaught. A ship like Zordar's. A ship that looked just like the one that had devastated New York a few months ago.

The enemy, it appeared, had more resources than they knew of.

"Two minutes to intercept!" said an officer. "First Fleet picked up on long-range radar! Third Fleet taking station behind it!"

"Main gun coming down on the Dreadnaught," said another officer. "Main siege cannon powering up…"

"They were supposed to give us an hour," said Singleton out loud as the President's face came up on his small screen.

"What?" said the President as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

"Mister President," said Singleton. "Earth is surrounded. The New Comet is in orbit and has already blasted Australia. They brought a Dreadnaught with them. First and Third Fleets are about to intercept with wave motion guns. We cannot contact Task Force 2.0. The enemy has demanded our surrender in fifty-seven minutes. I recommend a final attempt to fight on. We can end it here. What are your orders…sir?"

President Mendellsohn shut his eyes. _This will be a hard decision_, he thought. _Can I dare make it myself? But we have no time to consult with anyone else…for better or for worse, in my hands, now…is the very fate of Earth…_

**III. THE FATE OF THE ALLIANCE**

**Planet Gamilon**

**Desslok's Command Center**

**Friday, July 3, 2207 **

**0536 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

In his Palace on Gamilon, Leader Desslok sat behind a desk with a major headache. He had left his underground bunker to face Keeling and the Council on his own with Astrena and Dellar. He had just received an ultimatum of his own from Skaldart, who called himself "The Viceroy of Gamilon" now. _Surrender, or we activate the Hyperon Bomb on your world_, was what the ultimatum said.

"Astrena," he said. "I thought nothing else could ever be more of a humiliation to me than what Avatar did to Gamilon years ago. It appears I was wrong. Invidia has done far worse…"

"Invidia is merely one of the commanders," said Astrena as she stood holding her crying son. "She is not the sole author of this pain and disgrace…and we know that…"

"Sir," said an officer as he saluted. "Talan reports that a commando team is ready to attempt an assault on the Bomb. They are leaving the _Argo_ in a few minutes. Commodore Wildstar also states he is soon launching an attack upon the enemy Command Gorba with his entire Task Force…"

"Good news," said Keeling. He then turned to Desslok. "They had better have timed this so that the Bomb is defused before they try to attack that Fortress."

"I am sure they are," said Desslok. "To be sure, let me contact Wildstar myself…."

Astrena turned to Desslok and said, "I have something to tell you about the plan, Desslok."

"Yes?"

"It was devised by a bright and devious mind…almost as an afterthought."

"Oh?" said Desslok. "Do tell. Who devised this plan?"

"You might find this interesting," she said. "This is what I sense the plan is, and…"

On the _Argo_, which was in space near Gamilon, Homer twisted his head about just a few minutes later. "Commodore! Message from Gamilon! They're somehow getting through the jamming at short range!"

"Put him on the main screen," said Wildstar.

The bridge crew came to attention and saluted as Desslok's familiar visage came up on the screen.

"Leader Desslok," said Wildstar. "They just left the ship."

"Who is in command?" said Desslok.

"Talan and Frausky took command of your team," said Derek. "My own Commander Sandor is in command of our team, along with Lieutenant Commander Paul Rosstowski from the _Arizona_." Derek then bowed his head. "Princess Sasha insisted on going with Lieutenant Wakefield and with Paul and Aliscea Rosstowski. Every member of our Alliance is represented in that attack team, Desslok."

"A wise choice," said Desslok. "We only ask you to hold off on attacking Skaldart frontally until the bomb is defused."

"We're not planning a frontal attack," said Wildstar. "We're attacking one of those Cometine fleets behind Gamilon as a diversion. That should give the team time to get into that bomb and shut it down."

"I pray that our plan works…the fate of both our worlds rests in the hands of our warriors at this point…Nova…Astrena tells me you helped formulate this plan?"

"Yes, I did, Desslok," said Nova with a nod from her post at the Cosmo-Radar.

"It is an odd strategem…but a good one," he said. "I compliment you on its simplicity and deviousness."

"Thank you…even though I won't be doing that much to carry it out from here on the _Argo_…"

"Except supporting the operation. That is important. Commodore Wildstar, see to it that you are in position soon…we will keep you posted on the team's progress."

"Thank you, Desslok," said Derek.

Soon, the _Argo's_ screen went dark.

A moment later, Nova's screen began to bleep. She tapped her space boot with a release of tension as she looked down at her screen and began to analyze the situation within two seconds.

"Enemy objects detected!" she said. "Approaching Task Force at high speed from starboard bow at thirty degrees! Range, eight megameters, speed, thirty-two space knots! Tracks and pattern indicate torpedoes! I think they were fired from subspace submarines, Derek!"

"Good analysis, Nova! Mister Kitano!" snapped Wildstar. "Hard about forty degrees-comb the torpedo tracks! Bando, open up subspace sonar! Homer, open channels to the rest of the Fleet! Domon, Nishina, ready all weapons! Yamazaki, ready engines for maximum power! Nova, Eager, continue scanning!"

"Yessir!" they all snapped.

At that, the _Argo_ and her task force turned. Just as the landing boats carrying the commandoes launched, the _Argo_ and her escorts were back in battle once again.

But, they were tied down; unaware of the peril to Earth herself…

Near Earth, one minute had run out.

On the _Pennsylvania_, Admiral Yamanami gave the order; "First Fleet! All capital ships, decrease speed! Make ready to fire wave motion guns! Third Fleet, break formation and guard main attack fleet units!"

The Earth fleets made formation as Yamanami had commanded. The Second Squadron of First Fleet, led by the _Andromeda_-class space battleship _Phoenix_, was the first to come to position with her other battleships and cruisers to commence the attack.

"This is Commodore Richland," said the skipper of the _Phoenix_. "Admiral…Second Squadron is in position! One minute to firing of wave motion guns! We're well within range of the enemy ship!"

"Prepare to face enemy fire…you're the vanguard of the fleet," said Yamanami as he made a hand motion for his helmsman to stop. "I'm getting under it to attack it from the bottom…"

Richland nodded. He thought_, I'm the sacrificial lamb if we don't get our first clear shot. Well, I had a nice life,_ he thought. _I'll miss you, Gayle_, he thought, thinking of his wife back home.

"Energy level eighty percent!" said Richland. "Thirty seconds to firing!"

"Enemy Dreadnaught spotted!" cried the young woman at the _Phoenix__'s_ radar. "Range, one hundred megameters! They're moving towards the city-ship!"

"Hopefully…we'll get them, too," said Richland as a visual image came up and he saw its gun turrets beginning to track towards the _Eritz Gatlantis_ and his fleet. "Hopefully…"

"So, they're trying to be desperate and fight to the last ship and the last man?" said Gorse. "Princess, I think the time has come to just blast their capital! Then to blast their damned planet! They are too dangerous to be allowed to live a moment longer! That Ekogaru was right!"

"And leave ourselves open to attack?" snapped Invidia. "I may be young, Gorse. Do you think I am that _stupid_? Commence counterattack upon enemy fleet!"

"Princess," said Gorse.

Invidia glared at him. "Do not forget who is still in command here, Gorse! Commence counterattack upon…"

"Princess! Dreadnaught spotted in effective firing range!" said an officer as he ran up. "Its siege cannon is pointed right at us! Along with its main guns!"

"Who…?" hissed Invidia.

"Signal from the Dreadnaught," said a lower-ranking officer. "Requesting to speak directly to the Princess!"

"What?" hissed Invidia.

She looked down at the deck screen as a familiar face came up on the screen. "_Radnar?_" she screamed.

"I recommend you stand down," said Radnar. "Unless you want us to finish you off first!"

"Never!" barked Invidia.

"Good, Heretic! Let it be on thy own head! MAIN BATTERIES, OPEN FIRE!" yelled Radnar. "TARGET, _ERITZ GATLANTIS_!"

And, at that, the _Purification_ majestically turned….

…and loosed all of her main guns at Invidia before Commodore Richland could quite figure out what was happening!

Gun turret after gun turret went off, over and over and over again!

The _Eritz Gatlantis _began to take heavy damage right before a shocked Commodore Richland's eyes just as a small fleet was spotted coming forth from it.

"What the…?" he said.

"Sir!" barked his Executive Officer, a young man known as Captain Ryan Morell. "The enemy ship is firing…at _their own ship_? Estimate if we fire the wave guns now, we will hit them!"

"A battle between their own forces?" said Richland. He looked up at the tactical readouts on his ship's bridge. "By God, you're right, Morell. This may be a gamble, but I do not want to hit that other ship! All ships! _Cease _wave gun firing preparations! Convert attack mode to conventional attackl" he said as the rest of the fleet came up behind him. "Help that…other Cometine ship…finish off the city-ship! Commence conventional attack in one minute!"

"Yessir!" said Morell. "Cease wave gun firing sequence! Repeat! _Cease wave gun firing sequence!_ All ships, open all guns! Commence attack on the bottom of the _Eritz Gatlantis_ and the rotating belt! Make preparations to inflict maxiumum damage before it raises its shields!"

And, at that, the _Phoenix_ and Second Squadron moved in for the attack…

**TEN MINUTES LATER….**

**On Planet Gamilon….**

Talan and Rosstowski's team landed only about two kilometers away from the Hyperon Bomb on Gamilon as the sun began to come up.

"We're going to split up," said Talan in a whisper as he huddled with the group. "Sandor…Rosstowski…your group will go in at the southern side. My group will take the north. Our plan is to meet in the middle _here_, inside the fusing chamber," he said as he pointed to a blueprint of the device that Frausky and Aliscea had acquired from a combination of physical and psionic scans. Aliscea leaned against Paul as she heard the instructions. She was tired, but she and Sasha were needed in case the enemy had any R'Khell _R'jkharraz_ psionic warriors waiting for them inside the infernal device.

"Whichever one of us gets here first turns it off," said Sandor as he nodded at Rosstowski.

Talan nodded. "We had a little bit of a time getting in here because of those Tripod Tanks they have. Luckily, our _Rotjager_ squadron fought its way in, aided by a flight of your Wakefield's Trojans."

Deke nodded at that. _I didn't particularly want to come back here after that crap the other day,_ he thought_. Now, I'm fighting with these guys…to free Gamilon! Oh well, guess I can't choose our allies. And I don't like the green and mechanical guys any more than the Gamilons do. We can all agree on that._

"Let's go," said Rosstowski as Sasha leaned against Deke, made sure her gunbelt was secure, and felt the heft of the unconventional Pellian sidearm she had been issued. She had been told it had a bit more range than a usual EDF Astro-Automatic. This would prove to help her later on….

They went in a moment later. They began to drill, using laser drills wielded by the EDF Space Marines on their side and the strongest of the Gamilons and Garumans on Talan's side.

Aliscea Rosstowski herself wielded such a laser drill. It took a while, and she was tempted to just use her Pellian abilties to help them. _However,_ she thought as she smiled at her lifemate Paul,_ I've been using so much energy to help shield the Argo and Arizona from Ekogaru over the past few days that it is a miracle I even have enough energy to do this_. _I will need two days' worth of sleep when we finish this… _

Not far away, 500 killometers directly overhead in orbit, as a matter of fact, the _Argo_ and her Task Force were in quite a battle with an unseen enemy as they fought a squadron of R'Khell and Cometine space submarines that were busy attacking them.

An EDF and a Gamilon destroyer were already lost in battle as torpedo after torpedo slammed into the _Argo_ and the _Arizona_.

"So where _are_ they?" asked Wildstar.

"I've picked up two squadrons on sonar," said Bando. "One is half a megameter off at RPX-225, the other is off to starboard at WRA-105 one megameter away. They're closing in fast…"

"Torpedoes coming in from RPX-224," said Nova. "Enemy confirmed at that point!"

"Aiming wave missiles at that point," said Nishina.

The _Argo's_ hedgehog missiles locked on to that point and were ready to fire. The deck tubes opened, and Nishina fired.

The missiles fired, and four R'Khell submarines surfaced.

"The enemy's surfaced!" said Eager.

"Lock main guns on that point!" snapped Commodore Wildstar.

The _Argo's_ guns turned and locked on. "Main guns locked!" said Domon.

"FIRE!" barked Wildstar.

The main guns went off, shooting deadly energy right at the submarines.

Not far away, the _Arizona_ fired at some submarines that she had forced to surface.

Then, a moment later, Nova cried out, "Enemy fleet approaching! Range, nine megameters! They just executed a warp! Identified as Black Nebulan! Four space battleships and twelve destroyers!"

"Pinned down," said Wildstar as he slammed his Captain's desk with an angry fist. "Domon, fire at will!"

"We're going as fast as we can," said Domon. "Request permission to switch Turret One to Wave Cartridges for the heavies!"

"Granted," said Wildstar. Then, he turned to Homer and said, "Homer, call the other ships…execute Seven Bravo!"

"Roger that," said Domon.

A moment later, as the _Arizona_, _Princess Astra_, _Shiryu_, and _Danube_ came up behind the _Argo_, Wildstar smiled as Nova reported, "Garuman subs in the area! They just surfaced! They're going to help us against the escorts!"

"Thank Destiny for small favors," said Derek with a small grin. Nova grinned back before turning back to the task at hand.

This battle was going to take a while…

_And what_, thought Wildstar…_what if those Gorbas show up again? Why are they holding them back?_

**IV. THE DISASTROUS BATTLE OF EARTH**

**Over Planet Earth**

**Friday, July 3, 2207 **

**0549 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

The _Phoenix_ and Squadron Two of the Earth Defense Fleet were in the forefront of the battle as Admiral Yamanami quickly pulled his forces back.

On the _Pennsylvania_, he thought, _We were briefed on a General Radnar, but strange that he shows up now to try and aid us. If that is what he is doing, that is…_

In the meantime, the _Phoenix_ and her forces were blasting heavily at the _Eritz Gatlantis_, which was already smoking in many places, as panic began to break out in the city-ship.

The city-ship's gun belt had taken damage from several wave motion cartridge hits; enough damage to temporarily still the heavy Magna-Flame cannons as technicians, mechanics and slaves frantically worked inside the massive ship to bring the heavy guns back up on-line.

With the gun-belt stilled, the city-ship's heavy lower turrets were taking up the brunt of the defense of the ship as the Earth Defense Fleet blasted at the bottom, while Radnar and a few EDF planes attacked the top of the ship.

Within the _Eritz Gatlantis_, an officer handed a report to Gorse. He nodded and turned to Invidia.

"It will take them twelve time-units to get the main belt repaired, Princess and get the gas shield back up. We cannot re-ignite the Comet and crush Earth unless that field is up protecting the towers of the city from the reactions. If Radnar gets the Earth Fleet to withdraw so he can use his Siege Cannon on us, we'll be done for after maybe five or six hits. Recommend that we withdraw."

"Warp out in our moment of triumph?" said Invidia.

Gorse nodded as another readout came up. An officer explained, "General! The Second Squadron is pulling back. Radnar is changing position, and the rest of the Earth Fleet is coming about. They must be coordinating resources to fire their wave guns at us…"

"Recommend we warp out," said Gorse.

Invidia gritted her teeth and then snapped. "All right! Warp us out!"

"Destination?"

"Edge of the Sanzar System! We need to make repairs!"

Gorse nodded glumly.

A moment later, before the shocked eyes of Radnar and Yamanami, the _Eritz Gatlantis_ warped out.

It was 0552 Hours.

Incredibly, Earth had managed to scare Invidia off…with the help of other Cometines!

Yamanami closed his eyes and thought, _We've won this. But what is that Dreadnaught going to do?_

"Stand down, sir?" asked Yamanami's XO.

"No…not until we know what they want," said Yamanami as he gestured angrily towards Radnar's ship. "Just a precaution, of course…"

The XO of the _Pennsylvania_ nodded.

**Planet Gamilon….**

**0620 Hours, Earthtime…**

Sandor and Rosstowski's team broke the surface at about the same time that the Gamilons broke through at the same side.

They were safely in…on the other side of the shield, just as Nova Wildstar had postulated.

Not far away, what seemed like hundreds of Black Nebulan troopers were firing, to try to keep them down as they went up ladders into the Bomb like rats.

Sasha gritted her teeth as a Marine right beside her was struck down and fell screaming to his death.

Behind Sasha, Deke climbed up the rope and rod ladder, and he got onto a terrace of the Device just as the enemy fired at him and Sasha. He used DJ, his old Shetland, to pump holes into several Black Nebulans at close range when his AK-01A Laser Carbine froze up.

"Cheap piece of crap," he muttered. "Give me my old weapon any day…"

"You're sure attached to that thing," Sasha said.

"It's saved my life more times than you care to know about," he snapped back.

"Life takes us to crazy places, doesn't it, Deekee?" she whispered.

Wakefield nodded as Sandor came over and clapped him on the back. "We're not that far," he said as he looked at an instrument he had in his hand. "Energy indicator I built. It's picking up the radiation waves."

"It's that way," said Aliscea as she ran up in her yellow and black Living Group uniform. Deke thought he was looking at Nova for a split second until he realized that Aliscea had a slightly different (and somehow more alien) stance than his youngish Aunt had.

"We're agreed," said Sandor. "Rosstowski! GO!"

Paul nodded, and he hunkered down and threw a very big grenade. They ducked as it went off and blew a hatch.

They ran into the mysterious, darkened corridors of the Bomb, followed by their Marines and pilots.

"This place gives me the creeps," said Rosstowski.

"You're not the only one," said Wakefield.

"Aliscea!" cried Sasha as a strong impression came to her. "Look _out!_"

"What?" said Aliscea as she looked around.

Then, a hatch opened up below her booted feet, and she fell down into a hole.

"ALISCEA!" cried Paul. "ALISCEA!"

He tried to jump in after her, but the manhole hatch slammed shut before his face. He slammed his fist against the hatch and roared in utter rage.

"A SETUP!" he yelled. "Sandor, sir, I'm goin' after her!"

"No," said Sasha in a suddenly strong voice.

"WHY NOT!" he barked.

"Don't you dare speak to my mate like that!" roared back Deke as he got a sudden impulse to smack Rosstowski's head in.

"She's needed down there," said Sasha. "She'll do her best and make her way back to us. Just trust me."

"How do you know that?" said Paul.

"Because I have my own appointment with Destiny," huffed Sasha. "Or, rather…._we_ do. C'mon, Deke. I've had dreams about this…"

"Dreams about what?" said Sandor.

"This morning," said Sasha. "Some of them are nice. Some were very, very, _very_ bad."

"I don't like the sound of this," said Deke.

"Be very glad Auntie's not running around in here with us," said Sasha. "If she had been pigheaded enough to come on this little tour despite her delicate condition, I've already dreamed that she'd be leaving Gamilon in a box carried by six guys. For obvious reasons, I didn't tell her or Uncle about _that_ dream…"

"Oh, nice," said Sandor.

"Who else have you had dreams about?" said Paul.

"None of your business," said Sasha as she walked along with her helmeted nose up in the air.

Rosstowski shook his head in disgust as he followed Sandor.

Aliscea fell into a darkened room. The reddish lights came up as soon as she hit the deck.

She recognized the sickening aura of the Person in the room at once.

"Nice place to run into you, your _Lordship_," she snapped.

"I'm so glad to be here," purred Ekogaru as he came up in Stovall's rotten body. The body of the treasonous Marine already looked five years older. "Aliscea, dear, you and I need to _talk_."

"About _what_?" she sneered as she tore off her helmet and let her longish hair fly free.

"Surrender," said Ekogaru. "You, of all people, should know what I offer you and the others. The offer is still valid. Call this a family quarrel, my dear."

"Your Princess Invidia just failed near Earth and she's running home to you like a mangy cur bitch with her tail betwixt her legs," sneered Aliscea. "Your plan to trap us here didn't work. Earth fought her off without us. And Radnar is back. You don't know what to do about Radnar, do you?"

"Everything proceeds as I have foreseen," said Ekogaru. "Yes, this body I am in; it is dying. I have several fine possible replacements in mind. Another two or three Space Marines. A Gamilon or two. Your dear Auntie Nova, if I can break through her stubborn love for that stupid Samurai Captain of hers and corrupt her soul. And, last of all, a new fellow who is almost in my hands already."

"Who?" said Aliscea.

"Hartcliffe. Your dear drunken friend Bryan Hartcliffe. He is young. Younger than this one. Dissolute, and really stupid, too. But a good pilot, an expert warrior. All too easy to corrupt him. I'd rather work on Nova. She'd be more of a project. She's so innocent. So _sweet_. Corrupting her soul would be lots of fun. And I hate her more. But, any port in a storm, shall we say?"

"If that is what you get pleasure from, you make me _sick_," said Aliscea as tears ran down her face…and she realized she was crying for the Dark Lord!

"Enough talking," said Ekogaru as he yawned…and then extended his hands. "Let's have a discussion, shall we? This place is, shall we say, too big for both of us?"

"I agree with you, you _son-of-a-bitch_," said Aliscea with a grim smile as she extended her own hands….

Sandor and his team fought off a few more Black Nebulans as Sasha began to get a weird feeling about this place.

Finally, they were in a large room before a big black cylindrical object.

Sasha and Deke jumped as someone came out of the shadows, and then put up his hand in a Gamilon salute. It was Talan.

"The area is secured," he said as he motioned Frausky up.

Sandor looked at his readout and said, "It's here."

Frausky nodded. "The detonator switch is behind that hatch. Sasha, would you like to do the honors?"

Sasha nodded and waited as Frausky and Sandor undid a latch and opened up a large round hatch.

She was looking at a large amount of machinery as she took off her helmet to see better and also removed her space gloves to work better.

"Where is it?" she asked.

"There," said Frausky as he looked at a blueprint. "That small primer unit unscrews at those two points. Unscrew it and you shut this thing down."

Sasha nodded as she worked the device. She put her slender hands up, and undid the device.

It took only a moment, but she took it out.

She smiled at Deke as she held up the small device and then tossed it to the deck and smashed it neatly to scrap under her black boot.

Then, all the lights in the room went dim, and several hatches slammed shut.

Fiendish laughter filled the room as a deep voice said, from the shadows, "Welcome to Black Nebulan capivity, my _dear friends!_ As you can see, you think you turned it off. Wrong. I have another device in my command ship that I can use. But, first, I am going to take a few captives, and…"

Then, a figure strode forth and laughed at Sasha.

He was tall, blue, bald, and very ugly as he stood there in red and white robes.

"Skaldart," said Talan. "I recognize your ugly face from that arrogant communication you sent Leader Desslok!"

"I am not here to deal with you, yet, Gamilon," Skaldart sneered. He snapped his fingers and twelve Black Nebulan guards appeared from the shadows and pointed weapons at the Gamilons and Terrans. "Sasha, my dear Princess," he said as he levelled his weapon at her. "Ekogaru is dealing with Aliscea. I have been given the task to deal…with.._you_…first….kindly _surrender_, would you?"

Sasha smiled at him, dropped off her gunbelt, and then acted as if she was going to hand him her gun….

…and then, she kicked out at him, kicked his own sidearm from his hand with a high-kick move her Aunt Nova had taught her, and then she grabbed it and flew behind a panel, ducking and rolling as Skaldart shot at her with another sidearm he took from one of his own men.

"SASHA!" yelled Deke in rage as he jumped to her aid with DJ up. "SASHA!"

Down below, in the Bomb, the room where Ekogaru and Aliscea were was filled with flame and smoke as the two psychic paladins shot energy and flame at each other. Both of them were scorched, singed, and had their clothes hanging off them in burned tatters as they tried their best to kill each other at last.

Aliscea snarled as she shot flame from her hands in Ekogaru's face. The Dark Lord screamed as Stovall's features were marred by the fire, but he recovered and shot blue flame at Aliscea, setting her hair on fire.

Aliscea jumped in the remains of her boots, which looked as tattered on her feet as battered legwarmers. She jumped and rolled, putting out the fire as she grunted, absorbed the energy, and then fired again and again.

Ekogaru's pants were practically burned off of him as Aliscea hit him in the crotch. He screamed in agony as Stovall was practically emasculated by the fire, but he shot back, shooting flame into Aliscea's face.

One of Aliscea's eyes was blinded and some of her bangs were burned off as she absorbed the flame in agony, snarling with rage as she came up and began to strangle Ekogaru barehanded. She kicked him down and ground the bare, soot-blackened toes of her right foot into the Dark One's face and then kicked him twice in the head with the ball of her foot.

Ekogaru roared like a beast and wriggled out of what remained of his clothes. Naked now, he made Stovall's body gleam with light as he transformed him into some sort of Beast, a monstrous Thing with black fur and rending claws that looked like a nightmare cross between a bear and a gorilla. He went to tear out Aliscea's throat with his fangs, but she twisted her head and instead caught his fangs in her near-naked shoulder, screaming in agony and rage as blood spurted from her wounded shoulder and back.

With her waning strength, Aliscea boosted the power of her slender form and tore the Beast off of her. Ekogaru transmuted his form again into something weird, green, and reptilian as he went for Aliscea with a mouth filled with pointed teeth.

Aliscea found a stick and jammed it into the sickening monster's throat and then shot lightning right into his eyes. The Monster form of Ekogaru roared with animalistic rage as he stood blinded, and then used his senses to blast energy from his taloned hands into Aliscea's heart.

The energy burned Aliscea's uniform off even more, but she somehow kept her heart beating, as, with a howl of rage, she called upon all of her remaining energy and the knowledge of her ancestors through the Matrix of Pellias to shoot the energy back at the Monster.

Ekogaru's monstrous form burned like a torch as he screamed…and Aliscea grabbed hard at a small Sphere of crystal she saw in his taloned hands.

"NOOO!" he roared as he almost, almost lost the Sphere, the locus of his power, to Aliscea. He kicked at her, ripping claw marks into Aliscea's almost-bare stomach with his clawed toes as he threw down the Sphere. Before Aliscea could grab for it, he made his essence, the_ ka_ of the corrupt body he indwelt, shrink down into the globe and he then made it disappear.

Aliscea fell to the deck, grabbing at the Sphere with her fingers as Ekogaru made it vanish.

"DAMN YOU!" she roared as she slammed her fists into the deck in utter rage. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHH!"

Aliscea cursed, cried, and screamed as she flashed out in a fearsome blast of energy as she used much of her remaining power to transform into pure energy for a moment. She thought of reforming her body, and she emerged, a moment later, healed, whole, but still blackened with soot, naked, and suddenly very cold as she vomited up her breakfast with the effort of getting up.

Aliscea blinked her reformed eye as she shivered and found the remains of the black sleeved cloak Ekogaru had been wearing. She pulled the smelly robe around her naked body as a sole garment to hold in her body heat, tied it shut with a small bit of what remained of Stovall's web belt, and then she got up on her trembling bare feet, leaned against the wall, and began to cry her eyes out in exhaustion and frustration.

_I almost had him_, she thought. _I ALMOST HAD HIM! OH, PAUL!_ Aliscea thought through her bond with her mate. _Damnit, I almost had him!_

"Aliscea?" said Paul in a whisper as he then watched the scene before him.

Skaldart fired once at Sasha, who ducked behind another panel. Beautiful and desperate, she fired back at him with her captured Black Nebulan sidearm, hitting the Black Nebulan leader in the stomach.

He roared at her, and fired.

The beam would have hit her, except for Wakefield grabbing her by a leg and pulling her away at the last minute. "Hey!" she cried.

"I'll apologize later," he snapped. Then, he popped up before the leering Skaldart like a jack-in-the-box. "Say Hi to Zordar for me, you son-of-a-bitch!" he yelled.

He then blasted several holes in Skaldart's body with DJ and then blasted the remainder of his clip into the Black Nebulan's head. It exploded in a mess of machine parts, bone, gristle, flesh, and brain matter that splattered over one of the panels.

Talan nodded, and his Gamilon guards turned on the Black Nebulans, sharpshooting them into trash in about twenty seconds.

Finally, there was silence, broken only by the sound of a thunderclap as Aliscea reappeared in their midst, hung onto Paul, hugged and kissed him, and then said, "Nice job, Sasha. But HE is still alive."

"Ekogaru?" Sasha said.

Aliscea nodded. "I almost had his damn globe in my hands to break it. It is the foundation of his power now. You smash _that_ thing, you finish _him_. For good. Is the Bomb turned off?"

Sandor nodded. "I _think_ it is," said Sandor.

"Hello?" said Wildstar's voice, suddenly very clear, over Sandor's headset.

"Wildstar! We're picking you up clearly now! What happened?"

"The jamming field is gone," said Derek. "It's because the enemy just ran."

"Hmmm?" said Sandor.

"They warped out; the Gorbas, their fleet, everything, Nova just said so. When they warped, the field came down. They gave up. We _think_. Why?"

"Ekogaru…is gone…" said Aliscea. "Not dead. But Skaldart is dead. Sasha and Deke got him. And I messed up Ekogaru something good. He left the system a moment later, presumably aboard that command fortress. He must have taken the rest of his fleet with him. It's over. We won. We drove them off."

"What about the bomb?" said Sandor.

"I'm scanning it now," said Nova's voice over the speakers. Sandor thought he detected a smile in her voice as she said, "The last carrier wave connecting to that thing just turned off. It's shut down! They abandoned it! _Why_?"

"Yes…why?" said Sandor. "It makes no sense…"

"Ekogaru was augmenting the link with his power," said Aliscea as she shut her eyes. "He's too far out of range, so it shut down. Talan, I'd recommend that you get your men and Frausky's men to dismantle every last piece of electronics in this device before they can reactivate it. Then blow it up."

"We will do so," said Talan as he saluted. "Once again, my friends, Gamilon owes you a debt. Thank you for liberating us."

"Just a day's work," sighed Deke as Sasha held onto him. "Just another day's work…."

**TO BE CONTINUED….**


	6. Chapter 6

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY**

**Being the eighth part of _THE NEW COMET_-- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of **Derek A.C. Wakefield** (as usual)

Thanks to Gail Kopetz (Fluffy) and Yvleises Giordano (Eva) for some plot points regarding a punishment in this tale…

**ACT SIX: A FINAL OUTRAGE**

**I. A CONTENTIOUS MEETING**

**Planet Earth**

**The Great Megalopolis**

**Earth Defense Headquarters**

**The Chambers of the Defense Council**

**Friday, July 3, 2207: 0920 Hours Earth Space-Time **

The Earth Defense Council had just been called to order in emergency session.

The Commander already saw that it was not going to be a pleasant meeting. _We should count ourselves lucky we are here to meet at all,_ he thought.

Prime Minister Gonjin looked over the Council and said, "I've read the report, but I am still trying to put this together. Part of the Comet Empire helped us _drive away Invidia_ today?"

General Singleton nodded. "Yes, Mister Prime Minister. To put it in perspective, it is necessary to put together intelligence about what we have learned about the Cometine Race in the past few years."

"Go ahead," said Daniel Margolis, the attache' to the Federation Parliament Assembly. "We're _listenin'_…"

The Commander ignored the sacrcasm and said, "We have learned, from intellligence gained from the Gamilons, and intelligence gleaned from various enemy sources, including a brief conversation we had with General Radnar before he left the Solar System after the battle, that Prince Zordar was not, as we thought, the leader of the entire Comet Empire, but a warlord, for lack of a better term, fighting on his own with the sanction of his Race. It seems their Race, located in the Andromeda Galaxy, is a loose federation of many such warlords, expanding in all directions. General Radnar once served Prince Zordar but later fell out of favor with him. Since then, one could say he has been a rival to Zordar's faction, led by Princess Invidia. Invidia's new war against us, for reasons of inheritance, was found to be illegal and she was recalled to her home galaxy by the Cometine Grand Emperor. She refused that summons, so Radnar is one of several factions under orders to _stop_ her. For lack of a better term…Radnar is an ally against Invidia on our side."

The Council muttered and mumbled amongst themselves, trying to absorb this weird new development.

"So, let me get this straight," said Doctor Gonjin. "We were partially saved today because of a quarrel in the Cometine ranks?"

"We wouldn't even be in this mess today if we hadn't allied with Gamilon and Iscandar," sneered Doctor Harold Mattingly of the Xeno-Cultural Bureau. "Isn't it true that the famous Star Force was playing around helping Desslok while Earth was burning?"

"Yes," said Singleton as sweat ran down his brow. "But a large part of the enemy's strength was stopped there, at the Sanzar System, by our Star Force units. If the report I received from Commodore Wildstar is any indication, a major warlord and general in Invidia's faction named Skaldart was killed today, and the Dark Lord Ekogaru was seriously weakened in some kind of battle with Aliscea Rosstowski, formerly Aliscea D'Shal of Pellias. Gamilon was also kept in the war today thanks to an attack upon a neutron bomb led by Commander Sandor and General Talan. I read you the report from Commodore Derek Wildstar at the beginning of the meeting."

"Aren't you calling them _back_?" sneered Defense Minister Neil Ainsley. "We pay all of those Star Force hooligans special hazard pay, right? We should have those damn _freebooters_ back home watching the ramparts. I'm sure Invidia will probably be back for another round of target practice soon! Three million dead and our automated fleet turned to so much damn space junk in one morning. What a waste! We only _have_ two hundred and ninety more million people to be killed on Earth now. Fifteen million have already died in these two years of fighting. How many more do we need dead until you realize, Singleton, maybe we had better consider peace negotiations with this bunch?"

"We tried that _already_, and it didn't work!" snapped Singleton. "Remember what happened at Melezart?"

"That's because you wouldn't consider surrender, and you had to send that Wildstar teenybopper girl to be our representative," snapped Ainsley. "It only got them madder at us and lost us more resources. That kid should have been up on charges for her stupidity along with her long-haired husband!"

The Council muttered angrily as Singleton pounded a gavel for order. "Ladies! Gentlemen! We're here to decide _strategy_, not to put the Star Force on trial. Or did you forget the enemy _demanded_ that she was to be there? At any rate, I'm told that her strategy partly saved Gamilon this morning. She might be sitting here amongst us someday. But, at any rate, I have sent Commodore Wildstar orders. The Star Force and the whole Task Force…except for the spacecraft carrier _Shiryu_, barring any unforeseen distasters, are to begin heading back home on Tuesday, July Seventh since the threat to the Sanzar System is now apparently neutralized. The Gamilons have already told us they can help defend Iscandar and Gamilon from any furrher incursions based on what seemed to be left of the enemy's forces. When the Star Force vessels come home in a week or two at top speed in continuous warp mode, they will then be debriefed and receive emergency repairs prior to being redeployed at the edge of the Solar System. Until Invidia is completely defeated, whether by us, Gamilon, or Radnar, we know we will not be safe…"

**II. REGROUPING**

**Between Iscandar and Gamilon**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Friday, July 3, 2207**

**1406 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

Commodore Wildstar sat in the _Argo's_ comm booth, listening as General Singleton asked him, "Do you believe that you can have the Task Force, with the exception of the _Shiryu_, on the way back home within the next four days?"

Derek nodded his head. "Yes. The situation is finally more stable here in the Sanzar System at last. There have been no signs of enemy activity ever since our last battle with those Black Nebulan forces earlier this morning. It appears that after Ekogaru was defeated, he pulled everything out. The Gamilons have every recon ship and satellite spread out as far as possible in the system, and the _Shiryu_ and the _Danube_ are on patrol; no signs of enemy activity at all. How is it near Earth, sir?"

"Third Fleet fought a small skirmish with a little task force Invidia left behind, but they've all been defeated. A lot of people died around Australia, Commodore Wildstar. That Princess Invidia and her cronies have seriously disturbed minds. Some of the Council members were blaming you for it."

"They'll never stop it," sighed Wildstar. "If we would have been able to receive communications, we would have been on our way home in emergency continuous warp mode as soon as we knew Earth was in danger, sir."

"I told them that, and they finally believed me," said Singleton. "Unfortunately, Intelligence discovered that the _Eritz Gatlantis_ probably survived that suicidal space warp near Earth; with major damage."

"I'd like to hope that they'll creep back home, or that someone in that vipers' nest will just assasinate Invidia..or something. I want this war over, sir. I'm tired of it."

"Wildstar, you speak for a lot of us," sighed the Commander. "But you know they won't give up until that city-ship is turned to wreckage. I think they'll be back."

"Unfortunately, I think you're right, sir," sighed Derek.

The two men exchanged pleasantries and then saluted and ended the conversation.

A moment later, there was a tap at the partition. Derek knew who it was at once by the way the person tapped.

"Come in," he said.

The partition slid open, and Nova came in, yawning slightly. She had on her white nurses' tunic and clogs now, and she looked beat.

"How long have you been on your feet?" he asked.

"Doctor Sane and I just finished up with the last operation a few minutes ago. Hemsford. He was hurt invading the bomb. It's not serious, luckily. You look like I _feel_, Derek."

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing," said Derek Wildstar as his wife came over to his chair and began to give him a back rub. "You're starting to look pale. That worries me."

"A _lot_ of things are worrying me," Nova said as she worked the kinks out of Derek's back muscles through his Star Force whites. "I'm beginning to wonder if I'm still fit for duty."

"Why…would you say that?" Derek said delicately.

Nova sighed. "You know why. The pregnancy. I've said a lot of things lately that must make you think I'm an utter idiot, and I'm sorry. I know you…if there's any action, you might need to go out and fly. I want to apologize…for being so possessive of you. I…"

"Nova, I got your point," said Derek. "I'm commander of a Task Force now. My place is on this ship running it."

"Maybe my place is home," she said quietly. "I wish I _could_ go home, but…"

"We're going there anyway," Derek said. "But we agreeed you were going where I go. Staying where I stay."

"If we're going to be home for a few days…a few weeks…well…I'm only seven weeks or so away from my due date now, Derek." She smiled a little. "You're going to be a father in seven weeks, Commodore Wildstar. And I'm going to be a mother to these children," she said as she patted her stomach."And maybe one more."

"Jonathan?" he said.

"I hate to interfere…but he came to me again the other day. He was crying. He said he and his mother Astra have had some very harsh words over the communications net. They were about Conor. She blames him for his death."

Derek shook his head. "This does not sound like a good situation…"

"It's not, Derek. And we _are_ the boy's godparents."

"We'll let this one sit until we can talk to _both_ Jonathan and Astra about this," said Derek. "He's fourteen. Lots of fourteen-year old boys have fights with their parents."

"They're going to be burying Conor in the cemetery on Iscandar tomorrow," said Nova. "Can we be there for Jonathan?"

"Yes, Nova. I was…planning on it."

"And about home?" said Nova.

"Yes?" said Derek.

"I'm going to need some help papering and painting the bedroom we chose for the nursery when we get home. Up to some home improvement?" she said with a wink.

Derek got up and held his wife. "Yeah…I guess I am…"

"Thanks," said Nova in a small voice.

**III. A VERY BITTER INTERLUDE**

**One Lightyear Away From the Sanzar System**

**The _Eritz Gatlantis_**

**Princess Invidia's Palace**

**Sunday, July 5, 2207**

**2000 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

It could fairly be said Princess Invidia was in another burning rage.

_Another session with the accursed, rotten General Staff gone bad!_ Invidia snapped as she smashed her way back into her repaired suite, smashing a glass with her pointer as a nice little afterthought. _Idiots! We can warp at full speed, but we can't re-ignite the Comet for ten days! We can fix the shield but the power ducts to the belt Magna-Flame generators are down! I should hang a few more engineering officers for that and make them work harder! And our commanders? Desslok and the Earthlings handed us our posteriors on a platter, and Skaldart gets killed in battle himself! IDIOT!_

Invidia threw down her pointer and got herself a drink of some wine. She wished Michelle was around about now, but she was ill, so she had given her Terran slave a night off to rest in her quarters.

It left Invidia alone, depressed, and nasty as she drank.

Invidia could become a very nasty sort of drunk. Her wine burned like acid as it went down and she looked over at something that Gorse had recently had hung up in the cabin.

It was on a wall. It was a large picture of her father, Prince Zordar.

Invidia poured herself more wine, and then she glanced sidelong at the portrait of her father.

"Father," she said out loud to the picture as she mockingly raised a toast to it as tears began to run down her face. "You and my mother, Countess Eloise, were happy for the first twelve years of my life. I was happy. Then, there was the day that Mother died. That was the day you began to possess me. You told me I was a true Princess at that point; and new First Lady of our House. After the funeral, you made me sit with you in strategy sessions in her chair. You made me sit next to you all of the time, always. It is not that I did not love you…I did. Too much. I craved your love so much, Oh DEAR Father, that I began to believe _anything_ you taught me was right. _Take what you want!_...you told me! Take a city, _it is yours!_ Take slaves, _they are yours_! Read the books and romances beyond my years? You want something? Have the troops plunder it! Have our men smash windows and kick in doors in cities to get you a beautiful necklace! Wash the blood off the dead hand of the jeweller holding it! Read all of Mother's private books and booktapes? _They are yours!_ Become your mother! A lady of breeding! Passion! Power! You want fun? Take from the slaves like I do! Take whatever you want! Wealth? Take! A baby torn from its mother's breast to be plaything until it starves of affection and milk and dies? TAKE! Conversation? TAKE! Someone in your bed at night? TAKE! _They are your inferiors! They are not people!_"

"Father, what did you become?" hissed Invidia. "The once decent man I knew…began to change. No more baths, no more bouncing me on the knee, no more games! _You are grown! Share my power!_ Is it any wonder I began to crave more for myself, the more I wanted? And we fought! The worse you made me feel, the more I took it out on others!"

"And you told me I was your most precious one," she hissed as she drank even more. "You told me, Father, that you were leaving it all to me. To me? UNTIL YOU FOUND HIM!" she screamed as she held the pointer up to the portrait. "DESSLOK! You found him, and you said he was like a son to you! Where there is a son, the daughter…oh, the accursed laws of succession that you could have laughed at….the law that says the son inherits!"

"I wanted power to keep that place at your side as your precious one, your true heroine," said Invidia as she began to cry. "I schemed to put Desslok down to deal with Trelaina and everyone as I saw fit. I lied, cheated, schemed, to keep at your side and keep him down! I thought I had him out of the way when I sent him into prison and I prepared to put him on trial for his head! Then, what? He escapes! AND YOU AIDED HIM IN GETTING AWAY FROM ME! YOU GAVE HIM BACK HIS FLAGSHIP! SO HE CAN DO WHAT? SETTLE HIS PRIVATE QUARREL WITH THE _ARGO _AND THEN TURN AROUND AND HELP THEM AFTER DESSLOK GETS ALL MUSHY ABOUT THE BOY AND GIRL HUGGING EACH OTHER!"

Invidia began laughing. She drank more wine and laughed harder. "Oh, he helped them. And what do you do? I try to preserve things to keep the decisions out of your head, and you turn around and demote Dyre, myself, and Gorse to minor tasks! Then you decide to disinherit me!" Invidia laughed in a scream. "Strip me of my throne, that you promised me after Mother died! And I do not learn of it until after I run from you because you decided that you would deal with us later! Myself, Gorse and Dyre could take no more so we left the Dreadnaught! Then, Trelaina deals with YOU. And you don't even try to warp away or shoot at silly Trelaina with that siege cannon! You died! YOU LEFT ME! And you did not care!"

Invidia shook her pointer, now throughly drunk. "YOU DID NOT CARE! Abandon your daughter? Leave her? You could have been with us in our vengeance! Maybe you would have made it work! Maybe it still can work, but…our last chance is fading away! What can I do? What can I do now?"

"Get Desslok," said a deep voice as Invidia turned her head.

Standing there, grinning like Death, was Ekogaru in Stovall's body.

"You will wreck their Alliance if you capture Desslok and take him hostage," said the Dark One.

"Like that will do anything," said Invidia with scorn. "My mother. I remember my mother…"

"Is this a briefing or some kind of psychotherapy session?" mocked Ekogaru. "Really. There are times when I do not quite believe you…"

"When you realize what?" snapped Invidia. "That my mother loved me?"

"Oh, she did love you?" mocked the Dark Lord.

"She did. She treated me….well, like a true Princess! She was always good to me, and she always got Father to treat me well, as well."

"And after she died?"

"Father was never the same. It was as if her death unhinged him," said Invidia.

"As you are becoming unhinged now," he purred. "I have a bargain to make with you. Stovall is dying."

"Interesting that you are using him still. And how do you keep him from knowing all of what you think?"

"I have the ability to do so. His mind is fragmenting on me. My bargain. What if I came to live inside _your_ body?"

Invidia threw back her head and laughed insanely. "You are jesting! NO! NEVER!"

"I do not joke in such matters," said Ekogaru. "If you and I melded; became one being…you would have power like nothing you have ever dreamed of."

"And you would use up my essence, and I would then grow prematurely old, and die like him," said Invidia. "Having the ability that Trelaina gave me to change my appearance at will to that of the dead Katrina Savela is weird enough for my taste. I only want one person living in my head, and that is me. Or, if you are so great, why don't you just take me by force? If you can."

"I cannot do so," said Ekogaru. "I can only inhabit a willing host. No bother. I shall find another. Then, I will come back to you soon and beat your brains in while inside a stronger and younger body. In fact, if the person I have in mind agrees to this, it would be a sort of poetic justice, _eh_?"

"You're mad."

"You, Invidia, are far worse." At that, Ekogaru vanished.

**IV. TEMPTATIONS BY NIGHT**

**Planet Iscandar, High Orbit**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Derek and Nova Wildstar's Quarters**

**Monday, July 6, 2207**

**0206 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

Nova Wildstar awoke from a strange dream only to notice that it was suddenly very cold in the Captain's Quarters.

She pulled the covers tighter around her naked body as she tried to rouse Derek, who slept deeply beside her. "Derek?" she said. "Derek, please wake up! I'm cold! _Derek_!"

"_He will not awaken for the moment,_" said a deep, sepulchral voice that came from nowhere and everywhere at once as the cold grew ten factors worse. Nova looked down at herself and realized that the blanket and sheet had vanished, and she was lying nude on her back while horribly cold air made her skin go up in goose pimples from head to toe. Nova held Derek and shivered as a bizarre shape began to form in the near-darkness of their cabin, illuminated only by the shipboard instruments that were in there.

"Ekogaru," hissed Nova as she reached down and drew Derek's Astro-Automatic from its holster near their bunk as she confronted the weird, hooded, semi-skeletal apparition that was an unwelcome guest in their cabin. She undid the safety with a loud click as she leaned in close to Derek's naked body. He barely seemed to be breathing. "If you hurt my husband, you will have Hell to pay. Get out of here and go back to whichever astral Pit you came out of! Go back to Hell where you _belong_!"

"Oh, you are concerned for him while as naked as a baby. Were you mating with him tonight?" Ekogaru said mockingly.

"That is none of your _business_, you sick piece of garbage!" Nova snapped.

"You know, I like your spirit. Your protectiveness for your husband. You have a very young, healthy, and vital body. Why not let me move in there with you?"

"_What_?" cried Nova.

"Michael Stovall is not in very good health. He is not terribly bright, his thoughts are tiresome and boring, nothing but sex and revenge and killing, and he is dying fast because he has about as much mental potential as a rock. You, on the other hand, are in very good health, are awfully strong and attractive for a seven-months pregnant woman, have a keen mind with a lot of intutive factors, and you like to travel and see new places. If I come to live in you, I would cherish you and bring this war to an end. Together, you and I could advance the human race."

"By what? Enslaving it to create more cyborgs in your image?" snapped Nova.

"_Homo Technis_," he said. "A new, perfect life form. Join with me, and I can give you all the power I promised your late Aunt Yvona…and her ungrateful Clone."

"I'm not an insane religious fanatic like my Aunt," Nova retorted. "And you have five seconds to get out of here before I shoot you!" _If I can even shoot a ghost_, _that is…_ she thought.

"I take it that is a no?" said Ekogaru.

"Four seconds," said Nova.

"That is a no. Most unfortunate. All right. An alternate bargain? Give me one of the children inside your naked stomach."

"Never," said Nova. "Three seconds!"

"Or let me have your _husband_," he said with a cold laugh.

"No. Two seconds!"

"You are aware that it would be awfully hard to fire that weapon at me now and cause any damage," purred Ekogaru.

"WHY?" snapped Nova. "Your time is up!"

Ekogaru's phantom smiled and bowed mockingly as Nova fired.

Derek's Astro-Automatic just sprayed water at the Dark Lord. The stream of water went through him and spattered the back of Derek's chair as Ekogaru laughed like mad and vanished.

Nova looked at the weapon with disbelief as she noticed that she was kneeling naked and shivering on the restored blanket. She noticed the time on a nearby chrono: **_02:13:040.05._** Part of her recorded that time in her head, guessing it might be a significant observation for later on.

Derek woke up with sleep in his eyes. "Nova, what are you doing with my weapon?"

Nova turned around, filled with disbelief. "Ekogaru was just up here. I was trying to protect you!"

Derek sat up and yawned as sweat covered his bare chest. "Yeah, it feels incredibly cold in here…"

Nova put down the weapon after putting the safety back on. She heard and felt the buzzing of its power cell as it somehow went back to its normal state in her hands. Derek rubbed sleep out of his eyes and said, "I think we should call an alert if he's still around."

"How do we know that?" said Nova. "He was here one minute as a ghost…or some kind of spectre…and gone the next minute. He put you to sleep and we had some strange conference. I tried shooting him-he turned your weapon into a water pistol for a moment. That's why the back of your chair is wet."

"He didn't bring Stovall's carcass with him?"

Nova shook her head in the near-dark. From Derek's perspective, the shape of her slender but strong back, the roundness of her toned, bare bottom, and the soles of her bare feet as she knelt on her naked haunches made her look hauntingly sexy in the dim light. "No. He just showed up as a phantom! Granted, I was not thinking clearly and I wanted to shoot him, but how do we call an intruder alert against an _ectoplasm_, Derek? Something like that doesn't even technically exist as a physical object in space!"

"What did he want from you?" said Derek.

"To live inside my body," said Nova.

Derek chuckled. "Yeah. Part of me moves in there every other night or so…I believe that is why you are pregnant, my dear."

"That's not what he _meant_!" Nova snapped. "He wanted to possess me. Or one of our children! _I am Legion_, William Peter Blatty novel stuff…or maybe H.P. Lovecraft."

"Sounds like he needs to get a new screenwriter," chuckled Derek.

"This is not _funny_, Derek!" Nova snapped. She irritably went over his back and grabbed up an intership phone. She dialed a number and waited as it rang. "_First bridge_," came a Texas-accented voice over Nova's headset. "Officer of the Deck Lieutenant Chris Eager speakin'! That you, Wildstar?"

"Right place, wrong gender," Nova snapped.

"Nova! Now what's botherin' you, ma'am?"

"We have an intruder alert to report," she said as she looked at Derek and he nodded once. "Be on the lookout for something tall, semi-corporeal, and ugly. It's about seven feet tall and sort of looks like a stereotypical image of the Grim Reaper. Lord Ekogaru paid Derek and I a visit tonight. He might still be on the ship."

"_Really_?"

"Yes, really?" said Derek as he took the phone. "I…"

Then, a weird scream came over the ship's speakers. Demented laughter woke up every sleeping crewmember and officer as something like a gas cloud formed above the weather deck, with a skull-face at its center. The _Argo_ was knocked over hard to port like a toy ship as Derek and Nova crashed out of their bunk and smacked hard into their lockers. Then, the emergency lights came up in their cabin as the red alert klaxons came up while the ship went back onto an even keel.

"Are you all right?" Nova asked as she sat on the deck in Derek's lap.

"A little bruised up, but I'm fine," he said. "Get dressed!"

Nova nodded, pulling on a uniform and boots as quickly as she could while Derek dressed. Both of them appeared on the First Bridge a moment later.

Eager turned to face them as they showed up. "Okay, Nova, now I you you wasn't _kidding_!"

"Where did he go?" snapped Derek.

"He appeared over the weather deck, kicked the ship ninety degrees to port, and then he vanished," said Homer. "I'm calling the _Arizona_ and the _Danube_ to see what they saw!"

"_This is damage control_," said Bando's voice over the intership speakers as Nova and Derek ran to their posts. Nova went to the Cosmo-Radar, while Derek took a position at Combat, which was vacant at this hour of the night. "No damage reported to the ship. Except maybe a lot of shaken-up people and a few broken dishes in the galley."

Sandor appeared a moment later as he ran onto the bridge. "Would someone tell me what is going _on_ here?"

"We're still trying to figure that out, Steve," said Derek from his post as he got up to look around.

Hemsford's voice came up a moment later. "Marine Group Leader Hemsford here. No security events reported…_except_…"

"Except _what_?" snapped Derek from his post as he whipped his head around. "Nova, scan the ship and the surrounding area!"

"I was already on it, sir," Nova replied from her post as she worked the controls at her radar and sensor unit. "Haven't found anything odd yet. Scanning every spectrum and band that I can find."

Derek nodded once and then said, "Hemsford?"

"Sir, one of my squad leaders reports something weird. He was guarding the brig. Bryan Hartcliffe was down here?"

"Yes, we delayed his Captain's Mast," said Commodore Wildstar.

"He's not there now. He's vanished, the man reports."

"_What_?" said Derek.

"Gone. And the cell door is still dogged tightly shut."

Derek put his head in his hands and shook hard. "Now this is _weird_."

"What should we do, sir?"

"Put another man on that brig in case Bryan shows up again. And have that Sergeant come up here. I want to talk to him ASAP."

"Yessir," said Hemsford.

A few minutes later, Wildstar stood talking with the Marine Sergeant, a tallish, thin man named Marvin Reiland. Nova recognized him from somewhere but couldn't place who he was until she remembered that she had first met him in the fall of 2201, when he had been a mere Private and had been rescued with Sergeant Knox from the now-destroyed planet of Brumus. He had survived the first Cometine War only because he had been badly wounded while helping to board Desslok's flagship in their last battle with the Gamilon Leader and he was thus unable to board the _Gatlantis_, where Sergeant Knox had been fatally wounded.

Now, Reiland said to Wildstar, "Sir, I ran the security camera scans from inside his cell. They were weird."

"Did you bring the tapes?" said Derek.

"Yessir. We can run them over here at the starboard side screen."

Wildstar, Eager, Sandor, Nova and the others gathered around the starboard side bridge screen to the aft of Eager's post. Reiland and IQ-9 soon had the security tape going.

"Here's Hartcliffe in his cell, sir," said Reiland. "Sitting just the way he was earlier, morose, staring into space."

"Bring up the time readout?" said Nova.

"Yes, Nova," said IQ-9. He adjusted a knob on a console, and the time readout **2:13.040** came up on the screen.

"Slow it down!" said Nova. The video was slowed down. At 2:13.050, Nova observed, just ten seconds after Ekogaru's phantom had left her shivering and naked in her cabin, Hartcliffe sat bolt upright as a shadowy blob appeared on the video. A fog began to fill the room, but Nova thought she caught a glimpse of a skull-like face grinning at a shocked Hartcliffe as he made his prison garb come off him, and then the man sat shocked and naked in the cell.

"Did you find his clothes down there?" asked Derek.

"Yes, we did. And there were no signs that anything on his prison jumpsuit was even unzipped or opened! We had no idea how he got out of those garments without opening them, sir."

"Now we know, Sergeant," said Sandor. "Nova, get IQ to run it back and rerun it at normal speed."

"Yessir," said Nova. She said, "IQ-9, reverse and rerun 1X speed…"

"Yes, Nova," he replied. IQ-9 reran the tape. No sound was picked up, so the tape ran in silence. The form came, the fog filled the room, and the camera caught a glimpse of a naked and oddly thin Bryan Hartcliffe yelling a few things at the weird phantom while he shivered. Then, something obscured the camera. The image remained hazy for two minutes before the fog, the phantom, and Bryan Hartcliffe were all gone; only Bryan's clothes were left on the deck in a heap.

"2:13 Hours," said Nova. "Right after he finished with me, Derek."

"Weird. But now we know where he went," said Wildstar.

"Ma'am, you saw him?"

Nova nodded sadly. "He tried to tempt me into joining him, but I refused. He said…he wanted to move into my _body_. I said no way! Then, he wanted to possess one of my children inside me," said Nova with a shiver. "I also refused him. He laughed at me, left, and I guess maybe he thought Hartcliffe…was a better potential host than I was."

"If he's found again, he'll have to be watched carefully," said Wildstar.

"He's weird," said Eager. "Even stealing that Hartcliffe's clothes off his body! Nova, hate to ask, but did he steal your nightgown off ya?"

"No," said Nova. "I was already sleeping naked with Derek when he came…the way I usually sleep with him when I feel warm. It's a good thing he didn't steal my skin and muscles off my bones or something grisly and weird like that," Nova said as she shivered, glad she was safe and whole after her close encounter with the evil Thing that was Ekogaru.

"We're keeping an eye out for Hartcliffe ...or Ekogaru," said Commodore Wildstar. "If Hartcliffe is found, he is to be taken to Sickbay for every scan we know of…until Aliscea or Sasha can study him, that is."

"I wish Sasha was here now," said Sandor. "Wildstar, I wonder where she is?"

"That," said Derek. "Is a very good question…"

Deke was looking for Sasha, too.

She wasn't in their cabin, and neither was her saxophone.

He found Sasha in full uniform up on the observation deck playing a blues number on her sax at about 0300.

"Sasha! I was worried about you. Did you hear about Ekogaru visiting the ship?"

Sasha tooted a few more notes and then stopped playing. "I didn't need to hear, Deekee! I can _feel_ him, remember? He tried to do something horrible to Auntie, so he took Bryan Hartcliffe out of the brig, instead."

"Do you know where they are?"

Sasha shook her head. "Not for sure. I think he took Hartcliffe somewhere to Iscandar. The wretch is still alive, if you were wondering. I got up and came here because…you weren't there when he woke me up from out of that dream I was having. I need you, Deke. I was scared when you weren't there?"

Deke hugged Sasha from behind. "Afraid he took me…?"

"Sort of," said Sasha. "Let's go back to our cabin. There's something else I want to do…"

"Okay…but I'll need to call the Captain on the way back below. You'll have to report to him…"

"Yeah, guess so," sighed Sasha.

**THIRTY MINUTES LATER…**

After having talked to Wildstar on the phone, both Deke and Sasha had returned to their cabin.

Wakefield stripped down to his underclothes, while Sasha lay on her bunk nude for sleep.

Sasha lay yawning until an idea occurred to her.

"Deekee," she said as she came up behind him and hugged him.

"Yeah?"

"Having trouble sleeping?" she said as she kissed him.

"Sure am."

"Wanna do something?" she said as she teased his crotch.

Wakefield yawned. "I hope we have the energy for that…"

"Actually, I was thinking of playing a little before we did that. Do you see that sketchpad over there? And that pen?"

"Sasha, I do not draw very well. I'm better at drumming than drawing."

"I want you to try something…Deekee," whispered Sasha.

"What?"

"I'll pose for you…like this. Try drawing a picture of me."

Deke smiled at Sasha's slender form, bare from the top of her head down to the tips of her toes. "You look gorgeous, but the picture would probably stink. I can't draw for crap. Where did you get this idea from?"

"Auntie," said Sasha. "She told me she's posed like this in the nude with Uncle Derek a few times while he sketched her. She got the idea from an old movie called _Titanic_. She loves that movie…"

"I'll try it," sighed Deke as he kissed Sasha. "Get on the bunk."

Sasha winked, smiled, and lay down on her back in a come-hither pose with her eyes closed and one leg up. She pointed her toes like a dancer, made sure her hair was spread out, and she relaxed.

Deke began trying to draw her in a somewhat manga-esque style. It took about half an hour as he studied every feature of his young wife's body all over, and he began to want her more and more as he drew her.

Finallly, he stopped. Sasha sat up. "How did it come out?"

"Have a look," Deke said as he handed her the sketchpad.

Sasha laughed. "Oh, that's so _cute!_ Thanks, Deekee!"

"Now why did you have your leg up?" asked Deke as Sasha stripped him of his undershirt and they kissed.

"It's not right for the whole world to see everything, is it?" laughed Sasha.

"Oh…yes, your squirrel," said Deke.

"What's a squirrel?" teased Sasha in all innocence as she began to sit in his lap.

"I'll show you," said Deke as he slipped out of his boxer shorts.

Then, he pulled Sasha all the way onto his lap as he began touching her. She closed her eyes and again pointed her toes as Deke made her feel simply wonderful.

They hugged, kissed, and caressed for a long while with her in his lap.

Finally, he carried her to her bunk, lay on top of her, and, he gently took her as soon as she offered herself to him.

For maybe twenty or thirty minutes, the cabin was filled with the sounds of their love as they made tender love to each other. Finally, their dance of passion ended, and they fell asleep on top of each other in the little bunk. Sasha pulled a blanket up over them right before they went to sleep around 0410 for what they guessed would be a relatively short, but romantic, nap together.

Their nap was a moment of love, kindness, and sweetness in a few days that would prove to be chaotic.

**V. OFFERS AND PUNISHMENTS**

**Planet Iscandar, The Great Continent**

**Somwhere in the Jungle**

**Monday, July 6, 2207**

**0530 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

The sun was slowly coming up in the hot, steamy jungle on Iscandar as Bryan Hartcliffe struggled awake on the ground.

He was _sans_ bunk, _sans_ glasses, and entirely _sans_ clothes.

"Man, I must have been hittin' the Vodka good. Had a dream that I was in the brig back on the ship awaitin' trial. Now, I'm 'ere in the jungle. Naked," he said as he looked at himself. "Aww, man, don't want Angie to bloody see how thin I'm gettin'. She might make fun of me because she's gettin' fat with that bleedin' _baby lump_. What is with that Angie? Why am I 'ere and where is that crazy bird? Does she wanna do it in the _jungle_ now? Might be fun, luv…"

Then, Hartcliffe heard footsteps. He jumped, but didn't cover himself.

He got a stick in his hand when he recognized Stovall. Stovall's eyes looked very vacant.

"Hey, Stovall, ya traitor! You're under bloody arrest for treason, and I'll drag yer in! Then they'll drop all of the charges against me, and I can go back to porkin' Angie again before she gets too fat!"

"You?" said Stovall, in a weird, deep voice that chilled Hartcliffe down to the bone in the muggy pre-dawn morning. "Yes. You, and what army, Bryan Hartcliffe? Considering that _I _have taken _you_, this should be amusing."

"Who are you?" whispered Bryan.

Stovall's body held up the Sphere. "You know who I am, Hartcliffe. And you do not, I see, eat well or take care of yourself. Shame, really. Nova Dawn Yukiko Wildstar looks far better naked than you do, even seven months pregnant."

"You're him," muttered Bryan.

Ekogaru grinned evilly and slapped Hartcliffe hard across the face. Then, he grabbed him under the armpits and whipped him hard against the trunk of a nearby palm tree like a rag doll. Hartcliffe screamed at the pain.

Then, Ekogaru punched Hartcliffe in the throat, and he found it hard to breathe.

Ekogaru used his power to pick him up, and then he bashed him down hard onto the foilage-covered ground.

A gasping Hartcliffe shivered with sudden cold as Ekogaru loomed over him and kicked him onto his stomach. "You have such a contempt for women," sneered Ekogaru as he knelt with a hand on Hartcliffe's butt. "Had we a little more time, I would teach you something of what it is like to _be_ the woman in the relationship! By physical force."

"Ya…faggot," muttered Hartcliffe.

"No, just an equal opportunity rapist," said Ekogaru. "I should have done this to Nova when I was there, you know. I was somewhat distracted. Also, I didn't really want to rape a pregnant woman. Not all things are quite seemly. Even for me. Anyhow, the reason why we are here…."

"Why?" muttered Hartcliffe.

"Stovall's body is dying slowly. It is harder for me to keep together. Do you want to become my next host? _No one_ would mock you then. And you could treat Angie like an utter slave."

"I'm in the soup, mate," said Hartcliffe. "What would I have to do?"

"Let me move into your soul," purred Ekogaru. "I would be inside you. You would share my power. My imminent Godhood."

"Hey, I don't have much of a chance with the Church of England and I'm probably goin' on the way down, anyway, but this'd guarantee it. Aren't you like Old Mister Scratchman or somethin' like that?"

"Oh, be quiet," said Ekogaru. "Worrying about your immortal soul, really. How absurd. Will you consider working with me? I will get you out of your problems."

"Lemme think about it. Got a phone number where I can call yer?"

Ekogaru slapped him hard across the face and said, "I will give you time. When the time is right, I will come to _you_. Don't think too long, though. We are both running out of time. Now, back to the Brig for you!"

"Hey, can't yer put me in bed beside me Ang…"

Hartcliffe raised his head, finding himself back in his orange prisoners' jumpsuit in his cell in the Brig.

His cell door whizzed open a minute later. Three Marines came for him.

"Hey, what…?"

"We have orders to take you to Sickbay, Hartcliffe," said one of the Marines.

"Say wot?"

"Yeah, they're gonna examine you and probe your brain. If you have one, that is, you asswipe."

"What?" said Hartcliffe.

One of the Marines punched him in the gut and made him double over. Hartcliffe was then handcuffed and dragged to Sickbay after the Marines kicked him around a bit more.

Ten minutes later, Hartcliffe found himself naked and being examined by Dawn, Doctor Sane, and Tasha Cleveland.

Nova was elsewhere, with two other nurses, Derek, Sasha, Aliscea, and Lieutenant Peale of Intelligence.

Nova had voluntarily agreed to have her mind probed by Aliscea and Sasha and to endure thirty minutes in the lie detector/interrogation chair for two reasons; to establish a "normal" baseline for a mind recently contacted by the Dark Lord, as well as to prove to herself and the crew that she was clean of Ekogaru's influence. Behind a curtain, she had also received a physical.

Now, she sat in the ship's interrogation chair as an apprehensive Derek watched sensors being connected to her almost bare chest; she wore only her bra and panties for the interrogation, and she looked very small and vulnerable in that chair.

"Why are you agreeing to this?" asked Derek as more sensors were hooked up to her body, along with a fetal monitor for the babies. Then, her bare wrists and ankles were locked into the unit after some conducting gel was smeared on the palms of her hands and soles of her feet.

"I told you, Derek. To prove for the record Ekogaru has no part of me, and to act as a control for the interrogation of Mister Hartcliffe."

"Ma'am, this can get rough," said Peale as he watched Aliscea gently lowering the cephalic sensor helmet and its wires onto Nova's head. "I have orders from the Captain to stop if you look too uncomfortable or the babies show any distress."

"I'll be fine," she said.

"Very well," said Peale.

A moment later, Aliscea came up. Kneeling in her black Pellian dress and sandals, she put her fingertips on Nova's forehead and said, "Now, relax. Sasha and I are going to probe your mind before you are questioned under the lie detector. This will take but a few minutes," she said as Sasha knelt in her uniform and held her aunt's hand.

Nova nodded and shut her eyes.

**FORTY MINUTES LATER….**

"Well?" said Commodore Wildstar with apprehension as he watched Peale scanning back over Nova's polygraph results.

"She showed some stress…"

"With the way you were _yelling_ at her, Lieutenant, I am not surprised!" Derek snapped. Nova was done, but was in the locker room showering and getting into a fresh nurse's uniform. The questioning session had been harsh. Nova had ended the session covered with sweat and close to tears. Wildstar had also come close to punching Peale because the Lieutenant had slapped Nova across the face once during the interrogation, treating her exactly like an enemy prisoner for a bit after he accused her of lying in one of her answers.

"It was necessary to see how she reacted under stress, sir. The slap was necessary for the same reason. She passed the polygraph test with flying colors, though. She refused Ekogaru and made no deals with him and did not compromise any military secrets to him. No sign of any untruthfulness in her responses. She decidedly refused the Dark Lord and his gestures. This officer is utterly loyal to the Star Force and Earth and she's almost as pure as those babies inside her. She is a very good woman. I am actually impressed at her strong will. If ever captured, she would not easily break under interrogation, probably not even under torture," Peale said.

"Mrs. Wildstar is a very good spacer and very well-trained," snapped Derek. "She'd probably hold up better under torture than _you_ would, Peale."

"And her soul and mind are totally clean and she has a good conscience," said Aliscea. "She is one of the few people I met who has the moral purity to withstand Ekogaru's temptations unscathed. She has the minor sins and pecadilloes of most people, but otherwise, she has an exceptionally pure heart. She is also utterly devoted to the Commodore here and her coming family."

Hartcliffe was brought in a moment later, having overheard the comments about Nova. He smiled at her as she came in in her nurse's minidress and clogs a moment later, crisp, clean, not a sign of sweat on her at all. "Hey, Mrs. Pureheart," he said with a leer on his face. "I bet you were a really good little bird in Parochial School, luv. Queen of the May and cute and pure in your little First Communion dress."

"Oh, Bryan, be _quiet_," said Nova as she began to strap him into the interrogation chair. "You are so infantile at times."

A few minutes later, after Aliscea and Sasha probed his mind (and came away looking as if they had both touched something as nasty as a worm found under some rock), Bryan's lie detector session began. Soon, Lieutenant Peale was yelling at him and watching the lie detector readouts as he was tested.

"What were you doing on Iscandar?" yelled Peale.

"How do you know I was there,_ jackarse_?" barked Hartcliffe.

"Idiot! When you were stripped for your physical, we _found_ Iscandarian plants and leaves on your butt! What were you doing down on Iscandar?"

"Nuthin," he said.

"That is not an answer! WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON ISCANDAR?"

"Chatting with Ekogaru. He tried to sell me a new aircar."

"That is the most idiotic answer I have ever heard in my life!" yelled Peale as he struck Hartcliffe across the face. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH EKOGARU?"

"He was tryin' to get me to open a whorehouse, man," said Hartcliffe with a stupid smile on his face.

Peale glared at him and the screen. "Captain, this man is lying. His profile is totally unlike Mrs. Wildstar's; he is hiding something and the stress is showing…"

"So are me pecs," leered Bryan.

"BE QUIET!" snapped Nova.

"Request permission to use harsher measures on this man," said Peale.

Nova's face dropped. "Peale, I don't even like doing that to him. Doctor Sane, can he withstand the treatment?"

Sane looked at the readouts and nodded. "Yes, he can. I don't like using it, even on enemy prisoners."

"Use it," huffed Derek.

Sane nodded, and he reluctantly pushed a red button.

Hartcliffe screamed as an electrical charge ran through his body. Everyone looked nauseated; even Nova hid her face in her hands and looked sick.

The shock ended as Peale said, "Prepared to talk to us yet? Prepared to tell us the truth?"

"Go to hell, mate," snapped Hartcliffe.

Peale nodded to Sane again. There was an adjustment of a few knobs, and Hartcliffe was shocked again; he endured the electricity for nearly sixty seconds this time.

When he was done, he blurted out, "ALL RIGHT, ASSHOLE! Ekogaru and I made a deal! He wanted my body and I told 'im I'd consider it just to buy time to get away from 'im! That and he was temptin' me! He scared the crap out of me, all right?"

Peale watched the readout. "Now, you're almost telling us the truth. Have you considered joining him?"

"Yes, all right? I wanted to get away from 'im!" screamed Hartcliffe as he began to cry.

Peale slapped him across the face. "Scum," he hissed. "You'd consider treason?"

"Yes, I would! I didn't do it, though!" Hartcliffe screamed in a high, panicked voice. "I want a lawyer!"

"You don't get one!" snapped Wildstar. "You are not under arrest for treason…yet!"

Nova and Doctor Sane watched the session with impassive eyes while Sasha stood nearby, putting a hand on his forehead under the interrogation helmet again while Aliscea held her hands. "No sign of his presence, but his soul has been marked," she said. She turned to Nova. "Ma'am, he has had contact with the Dark Lord."

"So have I," sighed Nova.

"When I probed you; when you let me in, I found resistance to HIM. There was little resistance in this man's mind," said Sasha.

"Wot mind?" said Bryan.

Peale slapped him again. "Smart-ass!" he snapped. "Wildstar, sir, this man is a punk. His loyalty is very suspect. I think he should be held and considered for charges for treason."

"I'm not doing that," said Wildstar.

"Sir?" said Peale.

"He has considered treason. He has not done it yet. Besides, he is guilty of other crimes. I think we've got all we can out of him. Hartcliffe," said Wildstar. "You are ordered not to make any more deals with the enemy. That is a direct order. I will put you up on charges of offering aid and comfort to the enemy if you give the Dark Lord anything else, and under those circumstances, you might well be shot in disgrace after a full court-martial! ARE WE CLEAR?"

Bryan nodded.

"Good, I think that's all we can expect of you. Marines, see to it that he showers and gets dressed in his uniform. He will stand Captain's Mast in my cabin at 1130 Hours for the spousal abuse and dereliction of duty charges. Nova, get into your regular uniform and get the witnesses ready."

"Yessir," said Nova with a salute. Then, she left.

**1150 HOURS…**

Bryan Hartcliffe stood at attention in the _Argo's_ Captain's Quarters, back in his full uniform. The ship had landed again on Iscandar, but the First Star Force was making preparations to leave the Sanzar System the next evening after a final party in the afternoon tomorrow.

Deke Wakefield, Sasha, Hardy, Bangs, Angie Hartcliffe, and Nova had all been called by Derek as witnesses, testifying as to Bryan's actions and mental state. Angie didn't give the whole story of Bryan's shameful actions of a few days ago, but she did admit to being beaten and manhandled.

That was enough for Bryan Hartcliffe as he stood before Wildstar's Captain's chair with his head bowed. "You have nothing to say in your defense, Lieutenant?" asked Derek in stern tones.

"No, nothin'," he said.

"Then I find you guilty of dereliction of duty and of spousal abuse. I will be awarding the following punishments," said Commodore Wildstar.

Bryan stood with an unreadable expression on his face as Wildstar said, "When you are returned to duty with the Black Tigers, it will be as a regular member of Second Squadron. I am removing you from command of that squadron. Lieutenant Gabrielle Capistrano will be the new Second Squadron Leader in your place. You will serve as an ordinary member of that squadron in Delta Element under Lieutenant Nishiyama with no command duties. Second; you are awarded thirty days' worth of extra punishment duty. Eight hours of extra duty per day, every day, including Saturdays and Sundays. You will serve that duty under the joint command of Lieutenant Commander Nova Wildstar and Lieutenant Angelique Hartcliffe. Mrs. Wildstar will be in charge of giving you most of your tasks, while Mrs. Hartcliffe will be assigning you tasks when Mrs. Wildstar is not available to do so. Is that clear?"

"Yessir," said Bryan as he bowed his head.

"Third; I am forced to take away your waiver from fraternization protocol for the remainder of this mission. I am doing this at the request of Mrs. Hartcliffe."

"WOT?" said Bryan as he stared angrily at his wife, who bowed her head.

"Pursuant to that order, you will remove your things from Mrs. Hartcliffe's cabin this afternoon. You will be assigned new quarters with two male Ensigns. Any fraternization with your wife or attempt to fraternize with her on this command for the rest of this mission shall be severely punished. Also, you are not allowed to have any contraband on this mission. Mrs. Wildstar will search your effects every three days. You are not to have any contraband, defined as alcohol, unauthorized booktapes, music tapes, or magazines. If any are found, they are to be confiscated. Finally, you are ordered to undergo alcohol counseling with Doctor Sane and weekly psychological counseling sessions with Lieutenant Commander Wildstar for anger management. If you can show improvement, you might be redeemable and remain with this command. If not, you are off this ship, for good, when we return home. This crew has had enough of your attitude, Mister, and enough of your games, and so have I. Are we clear, Mister Hartcliffe?"

"Yessir," said Bryan as he stood in defeat.

"Good. These proceedings are finished. Your extra duty details begin today at 1400 after you move to your new cabin. Mrs. Wildstar, assist him in his move and show him where his new quarters will be. Then he is yours from 1400 to 2200. Then, Mister Hardy, he is to fly a patrol this evening. You know what to do to keep the man busy…"

"Yessir," said Nova and Hardy together.

Later, in his former quarters, Angie barely acknowledged Bryan's presence as she made sure that every sign of his presence was removed from their cabin. He had a suitcase and two seabags full of stuff to take out. A large garbage bag of items stood nearby; the bag consisted of bottles of liquor, various tapes, message capsules, girlie posters, and various pornographic and girlie magazines that Nova made him remove from his effects and tear up in front of Angie.

Angie felt sick as she saw evidence of how "faithful" Bryan had been to her, which was…not terribly. Some of the porn magazines were low, crass, and _utterly disgusting_. Now, Nova had nothing against illustrations that just showed simple, tasteful nudity; being a nurse and a student of the human form herself, she had willingly posed in the nude for her husband for tasteful photographs and drawings of her body. However, most of Bryan's collection was disgustingly graphic hard-core pornographic material that went far off both Nova and Angie's acceptability meters into perversion.

"Bryan," said Angie in an angry voice. "I am married to you. I thought we had sworn to be faithful to each other, forsaking all others. Why do you have to look at this _slut_ starlet Vicki Whatshername posing on a train car in nothing but a trenchcoat, fishnet hose, and heels spreading her _legs open _like that when you have _me_ to look at?"

"She's cute. Cuter than you, ya fishwife! And yer not takin' Vicki away from me, Nova!"

"Be quiet," Nova snapped as she ripped the disgusting centerfold in half. Then, Nova picked up a book with a disgustingly graphic cover. "Bryan, I don't even want to know what a book called _Spanking Stories_ is about! Why is this poor naked woman tied up on the cover?"

"'Coz she likes to be tied up and beaten black and blue. Look at her stockings, luv. All torn up! Sexy?"

"It is not sexy, and I'm trying _not_ to look," Nova huffed as she threw the book with the cover illustration of a bruised and near-naked woman in a few rags of lingerie into the trash. "Angie, I'm wondering how legal some of this garbage is."

"It's evident he goes to Dogtown to buy it," said Angie as she cried. "That's the part of town where all the houses of ill repute are."

"I know," said Bryan brightly.

"I don't want to know," said Angie as she held her stomach. "Bryan, we have a life growing inside of me. A life you put there! Don't you know that or care?"

"_no__ comment_," he said as Nova opened his suitcase and pulled out three more dirty books. Those also went in the trash. She looked at the full trash bag and huffed. "That's a lot for you to carry, Mister Hartcliffe."

"I'm carryin' all this?" he said.

"You thought _we_ were carrying it, you sexist _pig_?" Angie snapped. "Hell, no. You're carrying all of this out yourself. And when we get home to our apartment, Nova and I will go through it again to get rid of the rest of your crap like this."

"Huh?" said Bryan.

"I won't have any of it in the apartment," she snorted. "If I even let you _live_ there with me when we reach Earth in two or three weeks, that is."

"Pick it all up, Mister," Nova snapped as Bryan struggled with his seabags, suitcase, and the trash bag. "Now, _march_!"

Banished from Angie's cabin, Bryan found himself putting his things in a cramped cabin that he would now share with two pilots named Ensign Kyle Parker and Lieutenant Go Nishiyama; both males, both grim young men with crewcuts. They were from Second Squadron, and were men he had formerly commanded. Now, they watched him with contempt and amusement as he tried to cram his things into the small storage space he now had. Nishiyama had already heard he was going to be Hartcliffe's Element Leader as the man was joining Delta Element in Bravo Flight in the twelfth rank in the squadron. Nishiyama watched Hartcliffe with contempt as he stumbled around securing his gear.

He was turning their cabin into a mess. "Sir, don't you know how to get a three-man cabin ready for inspection?" he snapped.

"Right. This cabin has to look perfect," Nova added. "Get rid of those music books, Hartcliffe!"

"_Wot_?" he demanded.

"You'll have no room for them. Your guitar will just about fit in that locker," Angie said. "Consider yourself fortunate that Nova is not making you give _that_ up."

"And you will keep this space totally clean," Nova snapped. "Get rid of those extra flight plans and tech manuals, too! All you get to keep is your regular blue pilot's binder. And you will share your PC with those other two men now."

"I need those, I'm…"

"You're not a squadron leader any more, and you probably will not be again for several _years_," Nova said. "I'll take those. I'll give them to Bangs."

Hartcliffe looked close to tears as his extra flight plans, manuals, and reprinted _Area 88_ mangas and art books were taken away from him. Nova looked at the manga books and said, "I think we can split these between Derek and Deke. I think they'd like these, don't you?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Angie with a nasty little smile. "Let's leave him be for now."

"Until he has to serve on the deck," Nova said as he stumbled out of the cabin in shock. When he left, Nova whispered, "I've got something really nice planned for him for punishment…"

Bryan Hartcliffe was ordered to report to Nova on the _Argo's_ foredeck at 1400 Hours. Hartcliffe was ordered to bring an automatic holystoning unit, a hose, and shower flipflops.

Mystified, he reported to Nova, to find a bizarre scene.

Nova was lying on a beach chair in a pink one-piece swimsuit, flip-flops, and green sunglasses. She had a drink beside her and was reading a technical manual. She looked relaxed and happy. "Oh! Mister Hartcliffe! I'm glad you were on time."

"Why did yer have me bring this stuff, ma'am?"

"See all of the main deck to the aft of where I'm sitting; where the teakite board pattern starts on the deck?"

Hartcliffe nodded, not that familiar with the deck until he spotted the part of the main deck that started just aft of the blue-grey bare metal portion where Nova had her beach chair. That part of the deck simulated the old _Yamato's_ wooden decking, made of teak wood; but the new ship's surface duplicated it in a carbon-fiber and metal mixture called teakite, which had ceramic cladding over it to help protect the decks on re-entry. It was a rather large space that went aft many meters down to the first gun turret, and it was where the crew met when it was mustered for deck calls.

"Yeah, I see the boards," said Hartcliffe.

"Take off your boots, put your sandals on, roll up your pants legs, and start using the hose and the automatic unit to scrub down the deck and polish it," Nova ordered. "Derek wants it nice and shiny for the next muster of the crew tomorrow morning at sunrise. I like having it clean. When you're done, I want to be able to see my face in that polished ceramic surface. Wet the whole deck down first. When it's wet enough, take off your shoes and go over it barefoot. Sometimes, we have a Class Three robot doing it, and sometimes, I like to wash it myself when we're on a planet. I like getting my feet wet. However, it's getting a little rough for me to be on my feet all afternoon on such a minor job in my condition," Nova said. "Also, would you be a sport and refill my drink for me every now and then? It's not that much to ask while I watch you and make sure you do this right."

"Sure, ma'am," sighed Hartcliffe.

"Okay, get busy," said Nova with an impish smile. "We don't have all day…"

"Aye, aye," he said.

**TWO HOURS LATER…**

A puffing Bryan Hartcliffe brought Nova her second Virgin Mary drink. She seemed to need a fresh glass of tomato juice, celery salt, and Tabasco sauce every hour, with a celery sprig coming out the top.

"How's this?" he said as he handed Nova the drink.

"Let me see," Nova said as she sipped at it. "Nice. Better than the first one, Bryan. Thank you."

"No problem, ma'am," he said. He was sweaty, his pants legs were a mess, rolled up to his knees, and his bare calves and feet were getting sunburned above his flip-flops.

"Now, we need to polish that block over there by the starboard rail all over again," Nova said. "I got up and ran the unit a little all by myself by the port rail while you were gone and I got my feet wet. What _took_ you so long?" Nova asked, aware that she had ordered the galley crew to be rather…slow…with Bryan's desperate pleas for tomato juice.

"Those Living Group guys in the galley are slow, ma'am."

"Probably trying to make dinner," Nova said. "I think you may have to fresh-squeeze some tomato juice for the next drink if they throw you out again. You'll have to work faster so the polish doesn't dry out again."

"Ma'am, I'm going as fast as I can," he said as he got the scrubber unit.

"Then, you'll just have to work faster than that," Nova said. "Oh. Angie might be joining me in an hour to sunbathe. You know what she likes to drink."

"What? I 'ave to get drinks for both of 'yer now?"

"Yes, dear, we're both pregnant," Nova said, barely able to keep in her giggles at this punishment she had devised. "Pregnant women lose fluid very quickly when it is this hot out. I've had to go to the head a lot. While babysitting you, I need to replace those fluids!" she called out. "Work faster, Mister!"

"Aye, aye, ma'am!" said Hartcliffe as he worked like a dog.

_Now, let's see how arrogant you remain, and how busy Angie and I can keep you_, Nova thought with a little smile. _This might be fun. Payback is not a good thing, Bryan. Not for you…_

**VI. CELEBRATION AND CHAOS**

**Planet Iscandar, Near New Fiji Island**

**Tuesday, July 7, 2207**

**0600 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

On Iscandar, Bryan Hartcliffe's first day of punishment was finished.

His labors on the _Argo's_ foredeck had left it polished as the entire crew mustered at Dawn for what would be their last muster on Iscandar. They would be leaving the seas of Iscandar in their last takeoff at 1100, and then, after an evening of celebration, the _Argo_ and her Task Group were due to begin warping back to Earth at 1800 that evening.

As most of her crew felt Iscandar's warm breezes for what would be the very last time on this cruise, Derek Wildstar stood in his short peacoat addressing the crew from atop Number One Gun Turret, where the gun stripes had recently been repainted.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the First Star Force," said Derek. "We are seeing our final sunrise on Iscandar. When we watch the sun rising again, we will be back home again, on Earth."

Derek paused and continued. "A small Gamilon Task Force under the command of Admiral Histenbarger has been tracking Invidia's Comet and her forces. The _Eritz Gatlantis_ was seen again three lightyears away from the Sanzar System, but before Desslok could engage it, it warped again. Since then, the _Eritz Gatlantis_ and her fleets have been playing a cat and mouse game with the Gamilons, and were last spotted two thousand, five hundred lightyears away from here this morning. However, the Gamilons have a course projection in mind for the enemy forces. They are taking a slow, parabolic course that will partly cut through the Small Magellenic Cloud, with its endpoint in our Galaxy, at the Sol System. The enemy is heading for Earth, with all of their fleets this time."

The crew was filled with hubbub at this bit of news. "It was noticed that the Comet was badly damaged in its attempt to attack Earth a few days ago. The Gamilons believe that it will take between five to six weeks for it to reach the Solar System at this rate, or, forty-two days. That gives us forty-two days to get home, mount a defense, and to be ready for Invidia when she comes. To that end, our orders are to track the Comet as much as possible on our trip home at top speed. We anticipate being able to make it home in fifteen days, by July 22nd. Then, we will be repairing the _Argo_ and resupplying the ship on Earth, so that we can be back in space by August the sixth, thirty days from now. Then, we hope to be ready to engage the enemy on time on the eighteenth of August. That battle will be our last battle with Invidia, and it will decide the fate of Earth. We cannot lose that battle, ladies and gentlemen. We must win."

Commodore Wildstar paused again. "Desslok has said that he anticipates being able to aid us, and we have received a communication from the Cometine General Radnar that states that he may offer some aid as well. We appreciate what he did to stop the enemy near Earth. Earth has also heard from the Rikashans. Lord Cha'rif hopes he can also send a fleet, and Queen Astrena says she will commit what remains of the Pellian Fleet to the battle. Finally, my brother, Admiral Wildstar, has already left Iscandar with the _Princess Astra_ and is on his way back to Earth for heavy repairs and he anticipates being ready in time to do battle at our side."

"We have won a great victory here at the Sanzar System, even though the battle was fought hard and we lost many comrades," Derek continued. "Invidia has been badly weakened, and Ekogaru's spirit has been put to flight. We have received intelligence that indicates that the traitor Stovall is dying and that Ekogaru may soon lose his hold on our reality and vanish. In honor of our victoriies, we will be saying goodbye to Desslok, Astrena, and Queen Starsha this aftenoon with a celebration aboard the _Argo_. When we are done, we will be business again as we then head back home…to Earth, and then into battle again a few days later. Some of you may not be joining us in the final battles after we get home," said Derek as he glanced at Nova, Hartcliffe, and some of the others whom he guessed would be remaining behind at last on Earth after the _Argo_ landed at the end of the month and then took off again in August. "That is no disgrace. All of you have fought hard, well above and beyond the call of duty. For that, I thank you."

Derek paused again. "We will meet again aboard ship at 1300 to begin our celebration. I will see you again at that time. Now, let us salute Iscandar as we make ready to leave."

The crew saluted and left. Back at their posts, an honor salute was fired up in the sky towards Mother Town from the ship's main guns.

Then, the _Argo's_ engines came up as she backed away from the dock after weighing anchor. When in the open sea, the ship began to gather speed, followed by the rest of the Task Force as many of those left on New Fiji Island saluted as the _Argo_ and her escorts sailed away from Iscandar.

Finally, the _Argo_ reached top cruising speed, and Kitano pulled back the helm yoke. She blasted up out of the seas of Iscandar for the final time of this deployment and gathered speed and blasted off into the sky, followed by the _Arizona_, the _Shiryu_, the _Danube_, and the other ships of the Task Force.

Soon, the _Argo_ was back in orbit. There she would remain until she blasted out of the system later that day after the celebration.

On the _Argo_, the crew celebrated with an early lunch in the messhall at 1045 Hours.

Nova showed up as Derek and the bridge crew watched; she was quite a pleasant sight in the dress she had on for today's celebration and a pair of matching sandals. Derek smiled at her, noticing that the stretchy dress was the same one she had worn on the _Argo'_s first cruise to Iscandar years before back in 2199. Let out somewhat, it still fitted her pregnant form beautifully.

"How do I look, everyone?" Nova sang as she held up part of her dress and turned a shapely ankle. "My Cardin-style dress, which I've altered a little to fit my shape. Looking good for when Queen Starsha visits the ship?"

The crew applauded and said, "Way to go, Nova!"

"I hear you're gonna give a concert!" Eager called out.

"Yes, me and the rest of the Scarabs. You can see me on keyboards today beside Derek. He'll be singing, too!"

The crew applauded at that. "Hey! Do you do requests?" called out Homer.

"Yes, after I eat," Nova said. "I am eating for three, you know…"

The crew clapped at that.

Then, IQ-9 came up. "Hello there, sweet cheeks!"

"Sweet cheeks?" said Nova. "Why are you saying that?"

"Because I'm about to do this!" he yelled.

Then, he twirled around Nova and sped by as fast as he could…

…then, he grabbed at her skirt as he whipped past…

…while Nova's skirt flew up and her bare legs and panties showed!

Nova gasped and went up on her tiptoes. "You _pervert_!" she yelled as she threw her empty tray at his dome.

He burbled happily while the rest of the crew applauded.

"hahahaha!" said Derek. "Just like old times, huh?" he said as Nova came up a few minutes later with a fresh tray of lunch.

"Yeah! How can I kill that tinwit?" said Nova. "How can I pay him back for this?"

"Change into a pantsuit?" teased Kitano.

"Not an option since we are playing in two hours and I don't have a pantsuit on this ship," Nova said as she began attacking a buttered roll. "Derek, did you remember to practice?"

"I sure did," he said with a smile.

"Rehearsal is right after we eat," Nova said. "After you eat, go tune your electric guitar."

"Isn't that your electric guitar?" teased Derek. "The one you got on our wedding day?"

"Yes, but it's yours for today. I'm playing only keyboards."

Derek nodded and smiled as he watched Nova eating her salad. It had lots of French dressing on it. Nova ate it eagerly and then began to work on the Beef Stroganoff made with mystery meat.

"Is this meat?" teased Eager.

"Half of it is," Nova said with food in her mouth. "Half is soy filler. Sorry, I'm not being very ladylike now."

"This is sushi," said Derek. "I think."

"Yours is made with Iscandarian tuna," Nova commented. "I don't remember what they call it in Iscandarian."

"_Shilana_," said Sasha as she came up in her band outfit, which consisted of boots, a blue skirt, and a white turtleneck and blue vest. "It's leaner than Earth tuna. It lives on Earth, now, too. We've sent some to your reborn oceans to supplement your food supply."

"Where's Deke?" Nova said as she worked on her Stroganoff.

"Setting up his drum set on the observation deck and muttering to himself a lot."

"Hope he's not goin' crazy," Eager said.

Some crew members muttered as IQ-9 went through the food line grabbing things. "Hey!" Nova yelled. "IQ, stop being grabby! You know you're incapable of eating!"

"I'm getting this food for you, Nova…"

"I'm not hungry for much more!" Nova yelled back. "McCutcheon, take that from him and put it in the fridges in the galley!"

"No, I'll eat it," Sasha said as she got up and grabbed it from IQ-9. She began eating like crazy as some crew members laughed.

"How's this?" said Sasha as she ate greedily.

"You're a pig, dear," Nova said. "And Deekee might make comments…"

"I AM NOT FAT!" Sasha yelled as she ate like crazy.

Some crew members laughed at that.

Later on, the celebration had begun.

"Would someone tell me what this is?" said Leader Desslok as he stood sipping some wine brought by a servant.

"Sir, it is called Terran rock music, late 20th century, the cut was arranged by a Jim Steinman…"

"They're making a rather interesting noise, one must admit," said Desslok.

The Scarabs were playing up on a small stage as Nova and Derek sang _Nowhere Fast_ loudly into one mike. Nova was on keyboards; Derek was playing first lead guitar and standing next to her with his scarf flying from his uniform.

Not far away, Paul Rosstowski played bass while Bryan Hartcliffe played rythym guitar, banging out chords like crazy. Angie was in the crowd, but Bryan barely acknowledged the presence of his estranged pregnant wife as he played.

Deke Wakefield was banging away on the drums, with Sasha next to him playing her sax. Finally, on second lead guitar was Lt. Carlos Ramirez, a pilot from the _Arizona_ who had come over with Rosstowski.

"This is interesting," said Queen Starsha as she came over with Lady Novalia. "They seem to be having a great time, Desslok. Yet, something is telling me I should leave soon. Our lives may depend upon it."

Desslok's eyebrows went up as he looked at Astrena. "Do you have the same sense of dread?" he asked.

Astrena shut her eyes. "It is a vague sense, but…"

"I am obeying my impulses," Starsha said. She finished her drink and said, "Desslok, give my regards to Commodore Wildstar."

At that, she left.

Astrena looked at Desslok and said, "Perhaps we should leave shortly, too…."

"Give it some time," said Desslok. "Another few minutes; another drink, then we leave…"

Desslok would afterwards regret that he had ever done this; he would come to regret that he hadn't listened to Starsha's warning.

Desslok noticed Queen Starsha speaking to Captain Mark Venture of the _Arizona_ as she left; Venture nodded and then he decided to talk to Commodore Wildstar about her warning.

However, Bryan Hartcliffe interrupted affairs when he took over the band with his next number; a twisted version of John Lennon's _I'm Losing You_, that he began to acidly sing right at Angie.

**_Here in some stranger's room…  
Late in the afternoon…  
What am I doing here at all?  
Ain't no doubt about it…  
I'm losing you…_**

Angie turned beet-red and gritted her teeth as she realized that her estranged husband was singing these lyrics right at her. _You slimebucket! You bastard! How dare you embarrass me like that?_

The rest of the band had begun to play along, but Sasha stopped as soon as she saw the song's effect upon Angie. Deke also stopped drumming, and Nova and Rosstowski stopped. Nova pulled the cord out of Derek's guitar and whispered urgently to him. Derek nodded, and he plugged in his guitar and tried to ready himself to play a different song.

For the moment, Hartcliffe was left all alone, playing his guitar and sneering at Angie as he sang,

**_…But I remind you of all that bad, bad, bad stuff  
So what the hell am I supposed to do?  
Just put a bandaid on it?  
And stop the bleeding now…_**

The crowd began to boo right before Derek "tripped" over Hartcliffe's guitar cord, disconnecting it as he turned to Nova and began to play,

**_Maybe I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time…  
Maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you..  
Baby I'm amazed at the the way you pulled me out of time…_**

Nova gave him a thumbs-up, and eagerly began to play the song on keyboards while Sasha improvised a sax line while Deke came in on the drums. Soon, the rest of the band was drowning out Hartcliffe's off-key singing altogether as they played on and on.

The party returned to normal. It went on for another thirty minutes as the Scarabs played three more songs. Finally, Nova and the others were about to call it a concert as they began to sing _Scarlet Scarf_.

They had begun the first stanza, when, suddenly, the emergency lights came on and the red-alert klaxons started blowing.

"What the…?" said Derek as he stopped playing.

"An alert…NOW?" cried Nova. "But, Derek, what the heck could be…"

Then, something slammed into the ship's hull, and a gas began filling the room as some people screamed.

Nova played a few more chords, and then stopped when she noticed Black Nebulan troopers running into the observation deck, followed by some strange purple…

"..GAS!" Nova screamed. "They're trying to gas us! DEREK!"

Wildstar unholstered his weapon and began shooting, once, twice. Then, he turned to Nova and spotted Sandor. "Steve!" he yelled. "The room's filling up with gas! Get Nova out of here now!"

Nova felt herself being pushed towards Sandor by Rosstowski. A minute later, a stray laser shot hit her keyboards, blowing them to pieces with a loud, jangling noise and whine of electronic feedback. Nova screamed, but she got down under cover behind an amplifier and started shooting at the enemy with a fallen Marine's AK-01 Carbine laser rifle, pumping shots at the enemy to clear a path until Sandor grabbed her and pulled her away from the gas cloud.

In the chaos, Bryan Hartcliffe was using his guitar like a war club, swinging at the enemy as he vainly tried to protect Angie, who was already retching from the gas. His guitar broke as it came down over a Black Nebulan's head.

Some of the gas hit his lungs, and Bryan collapsed before he could get his Astro-Automatic unholstered. A cruel kick from a Black Nebulan knocked him into an unconscious Angie's arms.

"Orders?" said one of the Black Nebulans.

"Ignore the rest of them; the Hyperon Torpedo will hit the ship soon enough and they'll be dead within in the hour with the time delay. The Princess wants Desslok taken. Alive."

They had focused cruelly on Astrena; she had used her powers to fell about eight Black Nebulans with lightning bursts that came from her hands; until two enemy troopers pumped shots through her midsection.

"MOTHER!" cried Dellar as he saw his mother falling. Braving the gas, the half-Gamilion boy picked up a dead Star Force member's Astro-Astromatic and began firing at the enemy himself to guard his fallen, moaning mother.

Nearby, Sasha herself was firing like mad into the enemy ranks until the gas caught her and she fell retching into Deke's arms. Wakefield's eyes narrowed with madness as he tried to drag Sasha away, but the gas also got him and after three breaths, he was also unconscious.

A cruel booted foot kicked him over and one rather short Black Nebulan reported to a slender, somewhat taller comrade in Cometine battle armor, "Do we want the Princess?"

"Maybe not, but not yet," snapped a cold voice from behind the helmet. "I am here to apprehend Desslok. I vant him now!"

"Orders received, Princess," said a cold voice.

Not far away, Desslok was trying to hold Commodore Wildstar up. He had gotten a helmet on Wildstar, but Derek had breathed in enough of the gas to make him groggy.

"…gotta find…Nova," Derek gasped.

"Your Commander Sandor got her out of here," Desslok said through a torn cloth he had put over his nose and mouth. "I'm sure she is safe…we still have to drive these men off your ship."

"Where's Talan and Venture?" Derek gasped.

"Unconscious," said Desslok as he fired several rounds from his own weapon. But then, shots rang around both men. Desslok's face cloth fell away as he tried to shield Wildstar from enemy fire. He took an involuntary breath of the gas and began to feel woozy even as Derek collapsed.

Astrena tried to stuggle to her feet, gasping with each breath as the gas and the effects of the wound drove her into unconsciousness.

She fired a beam of energy at the thin, armored Cometine who was close to Desslok. The enemy trooper screamed, but she grabbed Desslok by his collar as he struggled. Four Black Nebulan troopers ran up. One of them kicked an unconscious Wildstar aside like a sack of potatoes as he helped his commanding officer pick up a gasping Desslok.

Desslok fell into unconsciousness as the Cometine commander's hands clapped and the enemy carried him away, stepping on unconscious and dead Star Force members and Gamilons as they went.

At that, the attack seemed to break off as the Black Nebulans followed their leader back to two boarding pods that were slammed into the _Argo's_ hull about twenty-five meters away. The enemy fought off a brief counter-attack from some Space Marines who had gotten into helmets, and Desslok was dragged off the _Argo_ into one of the boarding pods.

A figure in red armor; a R'Khell _R'jkharraz_ known as Seinar, raised his hand and he used his powers to close the corridor blast hatches behind them as the boarding party left with Desslok. Only a few ragged pulse laser shots came from the _Argo_; before the rest of the Task Force could react, the boarding pods shimmered and warped back to their mother ship.

The first part of the raiders' mission was completed; they had spirited Leader Desslok off the_ Argo_. He was now a hostage, and the Star Force was helpless.

Now, for the second part of the mission, thought the slender Cometine as she pulled off her helmet and laughed. It has been many years since I have personally led an operation. But, I have the prize I have wanted for all of these years.

"Now," said Princess Invidia as she laughed at the unconcious Desslok. "I…have…you!"

And, and that, she spat in Desslok's sleeping face….

Not far away, down another corridor, something slammed into the Argo's hull before the woozy Ensign in Kitano's place on the first bridge manning the helm could react.

The object was a single, terrible missile. It had an armor-piercing warhead that burned its way into the ship's hull and then stopped when the warhead sensed air pressure from the _Argo's_ atmosphere.

A timer in the warhead began to tick down from twenty-five minutes, ticking relentlessly down second by second towards zero.

A moment later, IQ-9 burbled up through the last tendrils of gas. He was dragging an unconscious Stephen Sandor by one hand and was dragging an equally unconscious Nova Wildstar by the other hand.

"There we go," he said. "Give yourselves five…ten minutes in clean air and both of you should recover," he said. Acting with concern rather than any desire for mischief, he gently lifted the sleeping Nova's skirt and placed a sensor on her pregnant stomach. "The babies are drugged but fine," he said. "If you get fresh air, they should recover along with you. I wish I could have checked the other pregnant woman, namely Mrs. Hartcliffe, but you are more important, Nova. If I lost you, the Commodore would dismantle me. And I could not bear losing you. I still love you," he said as he stroked her sleeping cheek. "Even though you cannot bear to hear it, I love you. I am strong. If the enemy comes back, I will protect you, Nova. Do not worry."

A moment later, Sandor slowly came to. He moaned as he struggled awake. "I wonder what sort of truck hit me in the head," he muttered.

"Sandor! You are all right!"

"What happened?" he asked.

"There was a great battle. The Black Nebulans boarded the ship, killed a number of crewmembers, including Ensign Tobias. Miss Tobias, it seems, was trying to protect Mrs. Hartcliffe and Nova. "

"Is Nova all right?"

"Yes, she is right here," said IQ-9 as he pointed to Nova. "My sensors indicate that she and the babies are slowly coming to…but we have a great danger to contend with…"

Nova yawned, sat up, flexed her toes in her sandals and rubbed her stomach. "They're okay. I feel them moving, I…Sandor! Where's Derek? Is he all right…"

"Yes, he was near Desslok, when…"

"What happened?" Nova cried.

"Desslok was taken prisoner by the enemy, unfortunately," said IQ-9. "They left the Captain alone once he was knocked out…but we have worse to worry about…"

Sandor then noticed the deadly missile. "IQ-9, what is this?"

"My sensors indicate it is a miniature hyperon bomb, like the sort the enemy put on Gamilon recently. It seems to have a timer in its nose…"

Sandor worked with IQ-9 at removing a panel. "That's it…"

"If the timer could be stopped, we could remove the priming device and then force it to launch out of the ship's hull," said IQ-9. "However, we have only nineteen minutes…"

"Hmmm," said Sandor. "I think we could do it. Nova. Get me a tool kit out of the spacesuit lockers if you can walk; a standard kit will do…"

"Right," Nova said as she got up. She ran down the passage to the first spacesuit locker she could find. Then, she ran back with a tool kit. "There's a blast door over here by Frame 140," she said. "When you reverse that missile, we can get behind there for safety."

"Good thinking, Nova," said Sandor as he opened the tool kit and looked at the enemy circuits. "Nova, get me that battery pack and a positive and negative set of jumpers. You and IQ connect them to those terminals while I heat up this soldering torch..."

Nova nodded, looking at the connectors that Sandor was pointing at as she brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Right. IQ, you reach that one…"

"Yes, Nova," he said. "Sandor, what is your theory?"

"To see if we can fool this computer into thinking this circuit is closed while we slowly open it," he said as he tested voltages with a voltmeter. "Nova, re-set that battery pack to 50 milliamps, 11.2 volts."

"Right," Nova said. "Fifty milliamps, 11.2 on my meter," she said as she hooked her own VOM into the circuit. "Now?"

"I'm going to start cutting wires…pray that I don't blow us all to the next life when I do this."

Nova nodded, and she began praying.

"You two had better hurry," said IQ-9. "I estimate we have seventeen minutes left."

Commodore Wildstar had forced himself awake. The first people he found were Venture, Sasha Wakefield, and Deke Wakefield.

"What happened?" he yelled.

Astrena struggled to her feet…and then fell down again. "They…captured…Desslok…ship's badly…damaged…"

"Who took him?" demanded Wildstar.

"The Black Nebulans," Astrena moaned. "He's already halfway out of the system."

"Well, let's pursue him, then!" Derek snapped.

"Derek, I wouldn't," said Venture.

"Mark, why the hell not?"

"Look," Mark Venture said as he dragged Derek to a viewport. "They have some kind of torpedo in the Argo's hull, just maybe twenty frames aft of here…"

"What the hell?" muttered Derek.

Then, a moment later, Sandor's voice came up on the PA. "Commodore Wildstar, are you awake, yet? This is Sandor! Over! Contact me on Channel 120A!"

Derek ran over to an intership phone and contacted that channel. "This is Wildstar. Sandor, where are you?"

"Aft near frame 155. The enemy has a Hyperon Torpedo in the ship's hull. We could be blown to bits in ten minutes if we can't back this thing out…"

"Sandor! You were by Nova! Where is she?"

"I'm assisting Sandor, Derek," Nova's voice said over the circuit as Derek breathed a sigh of relief. "We have IQ-9 with us. Over!"

"How are you people doing?" Derek yelled.

"Don't attempt to move the ship. I think we're close to getting this thing defused," said Sandor as Nova connected a logic circuit to the unit. She yelled out, "IQ, analyze that logic circuit!"

IQ-9 beeped. "It is reading "GO". We have the circuit hotwired. Now we can take the detonator out without the unit blowing up in our faces…"

Sandor nodded. "Nova, you get the lower anode. I'll get the upper one."

Nova gritted her teeth and worked as Sandor did. Then, they disconnected the primer unit, and Nova smiled triumphantly as she pulled the primer out. With a little grin, she squashed it under her sandal sole against the deck and said, "Now, we just have to stuff these things in the nose cone and convince it to back itself out."

"What does this remind you of, Tinwit?" asked Sandor with a grin.

"The Gamilon drill missile," he said. "Only we didn't have Nova there then. She'll bring us good luck."

"I hope I do," she said with a blush. "Steve, which wiring harness do we change the polarity of?"

"That one up there. Be careful we don't dislodge those power supplies."

"I'll tape them down," Nova said as she pulled out a roll of tape from a hip pocket of her dress.

"What's that?" Sandor asked.

"Surgical tape. I always try to carry a roll," Nova said. "It's good for fixing dressings on someone…and other stuff."

"Glad I got you here, you're always prepared," said Sandor with a grin.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Nova said as she worked.

Derek ran to the First Bridge and he ran to Combat after removing his jacket, followed by Venture, Sasha, and by Wakefield, who felt a bit like a fifth wheel until Wildstar sent him to work the Communications board on the theory that he had been trained in working a comm board long ago on his midshipman's cruise. Deke took a post on the _Argo's_ first bridge for the first and last time as he felt that he was way out of his league. _I'd be more comfortable back in my plane_, he thought.

"I can't get power up!" said Venture as he worked.

"What the hell? Several years off this ship and you forget how to run it?"

"Wildstar, there's something blocking energy transmission!" snapped Mark as he worked the familiar old controls.

From the main radar, Sasha said, "No! This is worse! Uncle, there's a fleet approaching us at slow speed! Five Cometine space battleships, ten destroyers!"

"They're sending some kind of visual signal!" said Deke from Communications. Wish I was in my fighter right now, damnit! Wakefield thought. "Put it up on the video panel, sir?"

Wildstar nodded as General Talan ran up on the bridge. "Wildstar! What are we doing to try to rescue Leader Desslok?"

"I think there's a field coming from that torpedo," said Sasha as she scanned. "It might be interfering with our main engine!"

"CRAP!" muttered Venture as he banged on the inert board. Then he got up and stamped his feet.

"We have a torpedo in our hull, General," said Wildstar. "We can manuever once we get rid of it and make that part of the ship airtight."

The visual came up a moment later. It was Princess Invidia in armor, laughing her head off. "Hello there, my friends. As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, I have Leader Desslok in my power. I will let him go if you surrender or if he surrenders! What say you?"

Desslok's eyes met Talan's and then Wildstar's, and he shook his head. "Fight on," he whispered. "Talan, I leave you in command of the Fleet…"

"Yessir," said Talan as tears ran down his cheeks.

"Wildstar, I charge you with avenging this outrage. Find where they are…and see if you can get me out of their hands, alive…or dead. Then, destroy Invidia and her Empire for us…"

Derek nodded just as something beeped on his board. He hit a switch. "Yes?"

"Derek, Nova here! We just finished reversing that torpedo," she said. "It's going to back itself out in twenty seconds! Sandor then says we should not have any more interference with the ship's systems!"

Wildstar nodded to Venture, who sat back down at the helm.

Mark then said, "Derek, power's coming back up! That field seems to be dead now!"

"Good job. Sandor, get Nova back up here. Venture, we're pursuing! Wakefield, call the Arizona and have them follow us!"

From the main radar, Sasha said, "It's backing itself out!"

"Thank heavens," Wildstar muttered. "Venture, pursue that fleet, full speed ahead!"

"Roger," said Captain Venture, who was temporarily back in his old seat again on the _Argo_. "Main engines, full speed ahead!"

The _Argo_ then surged forward. A moment later, Sandor, Nova, and IQ-9 reappeared. Sasha took over the tactical radar while Nova sat back down at her old post.

Derek looked back at his crew. "Together again, huh, guys?"

"Yeah," laughed Sandor. "This is gonna be a real blast," he said sarcastically as Nishina took his place at Artillery and Diane Henson completed the bridge complement by sitting down at Engineering.

"Where's Yamazaki?" Wildstar asked.

"We couldn't wake him up," said Henson. "Orion, Jr ordered me to take his post."

"Fire coming in from the enemy fleet!" cried Nova from her post. She looked a little pathetic with some grease still on her from her work on the torpedo. "Bearing, RPG-130 to starboard. Range, eight megameters!"

"Brace for impact!" yelled Sandor from his post.

The _Argo_ shook and shivered from the hits she had taken, but she cruised on with only light damage.

Wildstar had to make a split-second decision. "Nova! Which ship did that transmission come from?"

"The lead space battleship," she said a moment later after running the Time Radar. "That must be where Desslok is…"

"I can just barely feel him on that ship," Sasha reported a moment later.

"All right..we'll have to ram that ship and board her," said Commodore Wildstar a moment later. After giving the appropriate orders, he said, "Venture, get ready for a short warp. It'll be just like that time we boaded Desslok's flagship six years ago," he said as Talan nodded with reluctant approval at Wildstar's tactic as he sat down at Analysis beside Wildstar. "Nova, track that lead ship very carefully!"

"Roger," she said. "It's slowing down, range to ship seven megameters; holding course…"

"Stop all engines, Henson!" barked Wildstar.

From her post, Diane nodded. "Stop, all engines. Begin energy buildup for short warp."

"Thirty seconds to warp," said Venture as he set the controls while the bridge crew members locked on their restraint harnesses. Wildstar had to help Talan with his harness.

A moment later, the familiar hyperspatial sensor began to beep. "Twenty seconds to warp…""Enemy ship, steady on course," Nova said.

"Ten seconds to warp!" said Venture. "Nine…eight…seven….six…" he said as energy surges from the enemy fleet whizzed past the _Argo_. "Prepare for warp…all hands…three, two, one…zero..WARP!"

The _Argo_ made its short warp, rushing through hyperspace in a confused roar.

It emerged a few seconds later in empty space.

"What?" said Venture.

"She just warped out!" Nova snapped in frustration. "Damnit!"

"So where the hell is she, Nova?" Derek barked in equal frustration.

"Trying to calculate," she sighed. "Estimated warp-out point, maybe ten lightyears away from here, course uncertain, heading uncertain, took her whole fleet with her, too. Derek, Desslok's gone."

"Do you know your job?" snapped Talan.

"General, she's the best radar, survey and analysis officer in the whole Earth Fleet," snapped Derek angrily as Homer came to the bridge and relieved Wakefield from Communications. Tim Orion also came up with a shocked look on his face.

"Orion?" said Wildstar.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir. Yamazaki's dead. We lost him at his post in the Engine Room, sir. He…never quite regained consciousness from that gas."

Wildstar shook his head. "I'm sorry, Tim. You're the new Engine Group Leader now."

"No I'm not…not yet…" he said. "Miss Henson is. She has seniority over me, sir. I'll miss the Chief."

"What a hell of a way to get promoted," Diane said through her tears as Nova got up and hugged her. Both women, once mortal enemies, cried as they comforted each other in a tight hug. Finally, Nova patted her on the back and said, "You'll do all right, Diane. We just carry on, that's all. God…I hate this enemy!"

"Yeah, you're telling me, ma'am," said Henson as she tried to get used to the idea that she was suddenly the senior officer of her Group. "Orion, you're second in command now…"

"Aye, aye, ma'am," he said.

Talan then turned. "Not to be disrepectful, but aren't we searching for Leader Desslok, Wildstar?"

"We most certainly are, General. You're requesting it on behalf of the Empire? As a diplomatic request?"

Talan suddenly realized the weight that had fallen on his shoulders as he said, "Yes, Commodore. I am so requesting it."

"Good. Thank you. Our trip home to Earth is cancelled for the moment," he said as he turned to Venture. "Ready for your Task Force to come with us?"

"If the Commander orders us to…yes…"

"Homer, contact the Commander. "Tell him what has happened in code, and send General Talan's request. Tell him we need a reply within the hour."

"Yessir," said Homer.

**VII. NEW ORDERS AND A NEW MISSION**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**The Vicinity of Planet Iscandar**

**Tuesday, July 7, 2207**

**1612 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

"Message from the Commander!" Homer said from his post maybe an hour later.

The bridge crew came to attention and saluted. Sasha was now at Nova's post since Nova had been summoned below to Sickbay to help Doctor Sane care for gas victims and wounded from the battle.

"Yes?" asked Commodore Wildstar.

"Commodore," said the Commander. "I am denying part of your request. I still want Task Force 2.0 to return to Earth for debriefing and repairs. However, Captain Venture will assume temporary command of the Task Force until you return, Commodore. In light of Gamilon's request, you are being ordered to leave the Sanzar System at once with two missions in mind; one, to find Invidia's Task Force and to recapture Desslok, if at all possible. Your second mission will be to track the New Comet and report on its whereabouts. Earth needs warning time to prepare for another attack, so, for the duration of the war, it will be your job to track Invidia's whereabouts. If possible, when and if you can recapture Desslok, Princess Invidia is to be neutralized…by any means necessary, if at all possible."

"Yessir…we're clear on that," said Wildstar as Kitano and Domon came back up to the First Bridge, looking very tired.

"I have also received a supplemental report from Mrs. Wildstar. In light of your casualties as per her report, your personnel requests as of 6 July are all hereby denied," said Commanding General Singleton with a bowed head. "The four officers and fourteen crewmembers for which you and she requested reassignment for will remain on board the _Argo_ on active duty until your mission is completed. That includes Mrs. Wildstar and Mrs. Hartcliffe. Are we clear in those regards, Commodore?"

"Yessir," said Derek, not sure how he'd tell Nova that she would not be going home now…and that the likelihood was now firm that she would probably give birth to their children on the Argo. "My officers and men will have to adapt…sir.." said Commodore Wildstar.

"Very well," said Singleton. "You will leave within the hour. General Talan," he said, addressing Talan directly. "Be assured that the Star Force will do all they can to locate Leader Desslok…and bring him back home to Gamilon safely."

"Thank you," said Talan as he bowed his head. "Leader Desslok did well when he chose your people as allies. We appreciate your efforts on Desslok's behalf." A stunned Astrena (who had healed her wounds with her power) and Dellar appeared on the bridge a moment later. The Gamilon Heir was crying as his mother tried to hold and comfort him. "As does the Imperial Family…"

"I am glad that we can work together in these regards," said the Commander. "Wildstar, best of luck in your new mission."

"Thank you, sir," said Derek as he and Venture shook hands as Kitano made ready to take back his post.

"Hey, it was good having you back on the ship again," said Derek as he gave Venture a friendly pat. "I'll bet you're glad you left Holly back on the _Arizona_ now, right?"

"Yeah...I know she'll be okay and will turn the bridge back over to me when I get back," Venture sighed. "Derek, I hope Nova's gonna be all right. With that pregnancy and all…"

Wildstar sighed. "Yeah, I know…she'll manage…"

"I hope so," sighed Mark. "Derek, I've known her for years. She didn't look that good. You can tell that she's getting tired from carrying those twins. Tell her I'm worried about her."

Derek squeezed his hand. "Thanks, Mark. I'll let her know what you said."

Venture saluted, and he threw back on his peacoat for his trip back to the _Arizona_.

Talan then gathered up Astrena and Dellar and said, "They'll be with me on the _Excelsior_. We'll be a few lightyears behind you, Wildstar. For the sake of the Empire, send word…when you find out one way or the other…"

"We will, General," Wildstar said as he shook hands with Talan. "Your plans for Invidia?"

"Vengeance…as soon as Desslok is back in our hands safe and sound," said Talan with gritted teeth.

"That's if we don't get to her first, sir," said Wildstar.

Talan smiled for the first time that day. "Why, Commodore. That is most commendable! Thank you, Wildstar."

"We want her dead as much as you guys do," said Derek with a conspiratorial grin.

"In that, we share a goal," said Talan. "Destiny's wind at your back, Commodore."

"And you too, General," said Wildstar as they saluted each other.

Then, the Gamilons left.

When their guests had left the _Argo_, Commodore Wildstar ordered, "Mister Kitano, warp us two lightyears away from the Sanzar System. Then, we'll start looking for that Fleet…"

"Yessir," he said. "_Argo_, take off!"

At that, the _Argo_ took off.

She blasted away, on a new, unknown mission.

Destination: unknown….

Course: unknown…

Time of return to Earth: unknown…

Mission…find Desslok, and track the New Comet to Earth.

Their job at Iscandar was now done…and now, their job was to race the New Comet.

The prisoner came to in a dank cell.

The cell door hissed open as Desslok stared with hatred at his inquisitor; Princess Invidia.

She smiled at him, tapping a sandal-clad foot on the deck as she tapped her pointer against the doorway.

"Well, Desslok. I'm glad to see you here today," she said with a mocking smile.

"I'm not glad to be here," replied Desslok. "Where is this vile place?"

"The brig of the Cometine Space Battleship Katranga. Don't count on the Star Force to come rescue you. They're dead by now. At least their crew is. We'll be salvaging the _Argo_ shortly. The hyperon bomb blast would most probably have created only minor damage to the ship. As for your friends Derek Wildstar, Nova Wildstar, Aliscea of Pellias, poor Astrena, your son, and Talan, they are all dead by now and I am sure they are now having a nice conversation with Trelaina of Telezart in the netherworld. At least it was a merciful death, having their brain matter destroyed in just a quick flash by our prototype Hyperon Torpedo. The _Argo_ is a mighty ship. I'm sure it will make a fine addition to our ranks. We need well-built space battleships even if that old ship is a little dilapidated. Hahahahaha!"

"You rotten bitch," hissed Desslok as he tried to get up. He couldn't. He was chained to the deck.

"Are your accomodations a little inconvenient?" sneered Invidia.

"Let me out of these chains and you'll see how quickly I can deal with you, Invidia."

"Oh, I don't think so," laughed Invidia. "I want to bring you securely back to the Eritz Gatlantis, where you shall remain our guest."

"For how long?"

"The foreseeable future, or the day of your execution," sneered Invidia. "Whichever comes first."

Desslok said no more. Finally, Invidia just laughed and turned away. "We'll talk again, Leader Desslok."

Desslok shut his eyes and thought, There has to be a way out of your vile clutches, Invidia. But what is it? And why are you holding me?

**END BOOK EIGHT**

**_TO BE CONTINUED WITH BOOK NINE "ENDGAME"_**


End file.
